Many are familiar with television shows on bank robberies and the famous John Q movie that depicted the ordeal of hostages. How many realise that we, citizens of T&T, are hostages of fear held captive by crime.
The effects of crime are evident in the way we live our lives; we are constantly looking over our shoulders, increasing security in our homes and changing the way we carry out our day to day activities. This fear is exacerbated by the low rate of conviction.
Over the past ten years we have had three police commissioners and seven minsters of national security, all with the introduction of several policing strategies such as community oriented policing, model stations, intelligence-led policing and at present evidence-based policing.
However, these strategies all suffered the same fate in that they were not given a fair chance of working. More than being initiatives, these strategies must be adapted and implemented to suit the nature and requirements of our country for the best possible results. Instead, we have seen these strategies as coming and going with each police commissioner regardless of their chances for success.
How then do we address crime and, by extension, the fear citizens feel if we cannot stick with a strategy long enough to discern its viability? The question then becomes: how serious are we about crime?
With the increase in street lighting and late night public transportation, it may appear as if the powers that be view the crime problem facing this country as nothing more than a transitional phase on the way to First World status–one that will disintegrate the more developed we become. What we see is a blatant ignorance of social issues and a whimsical denial of culpability, while criminal elements roam the streets inflicting fear on an already traumatised population.
As evident by the recent reports, our elderly population is being subjected to heinous acts of sexual abuse and other forms of physical harm. Our women are afraid to be alone at night, whether walking the streets or at home. Parents are fearful for their children. Bullets stray and take the lives of the innocent; casualties caused by mistaken identity, a lack of respect for the law and those who uphold it have resulted in the death of many of our officers.
Bottom line, more needs to be done about the crime situation and the effect it has on the lives of citizens. We cannot continue to let telecommunication companies sell us a false sense of security and profit off our fear while we cower, hoping that the man behind us in the street at night isn't the one to inflict harm upon us.
Renee Maingot-Pesnell