Ewatski to lawmen: Solve more crimes

An urgent call is being made to police officers to improve the low detection rate. Deputy Police Commissioner in charge of Operations, Jack Ewatski, in an interview yesterday, also was concerned about the inability of his charges to generate evidence, saying in most instances he was dissatisfied with the detection rate. Saying the low detection rate still remained a very troubling issue for the Police Service, Ewatski added: “We have been holding meetings with all our regions and an issue that keeps being raised is the fact that our detection rate is too low and everybody agrees with that.” 

 

Noting that new strategies needed to be developed to increase the detection rate, the senior cop said there were several factors that needed to be implemented. He added: “There are a number of things that contribute to a low detection rate and it is a combination of whether or not we are utilising all the technology we have to solve crimes, whether or not we are using the right people to solve these crimes. “We have a concern with our ability to generate evidence through the public, through witnesses or people wanting to be involved in providing us with information.”  Questioned whether the low detection rate revealed the inability on the part of the police to solve crimes, including homicides, Ewatski said performance could be improved through either training, development or better approaches.

 

The murder figure also remained another troubling aspect for the Police Service as Ewatski said this year, thus far, there have been a large number of killings. “Even though there is a downward trend in the amount of murders we are still very concerned that which exists today is still high,” Ewatski said. Describing a murder as a very difficult crime to prevent, Ewatski said police officers would continue to pursue criminal elements and bring them to justice. “When we talk about crime there are other crimes that we have to concern ourselves with too and I think we are continuing to see a downward trend in the amount of serious crimes,” he added.