There has been a resurgence in murders but not as a result of the conclusion of the State of Emergency, Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs has insisted. Gibbs was speaking at a national security breakfast meeting of stakeholders at Crowne Plaza, Port-of-Spain, to discuss the ministry's plan for further reducing crime. However, The top cop failed to identify the reason for the increase, saying there was "no singular cause." The emergency which began last August 21, ended last December and resulted in a "steady downward trend," Gibbs said. "We are past six months since the state of emergency. What we are seeing in the last few weeks is this upward trend and again we look at it for causes,"he added. He said even before the emergency, crime, including serious crime, was on a downward trend by about 20 per cent. The emergency, Gibbs said, reduced figures even further, and at the end of last year there was a decrease of 25 per cent. "The emergency, of course, made a difference but certainly it wasn't the only difference and following the emergency, in the months of January and February, our crime rates continued to decline," Gibbs added.
He said the recent spike was "really out of the ordinary" but said the police were working to reduce it. One possible cause he identified for the spike was that a shipment of guns could have entered T&T. He said: "If that is the case, then we need to treat with that, so we can prevent it. "If crime was simple, if it was just a cause and effect, we would have eliminated crime years and years ago but we know it is multi-facated and we have to treat with it in the same fashion." He said within the Police Service there was a "strong" analytical department which examined spikes and trends which in turn assisted in the formulation of operations. Asked if he was unsure what was causing the recent spike, Gibbs said: "I'm not sayinng that. I'm saying we are looking at all recent things that could have caused the recent spike and we are taking a look at how do we respond to that in a meaningful manner." The key to crime reduction, he said, was disturbing the patterns of criminals. He added: "One of the things we have with homicides in Trinidad - any kind of violence - is that as we disrupt the pattern, it changes. "And so we are always working on disrupting the patterns, looking at ways to get out and actually prevent the next homicide from taking place."
He said even though there was a period of decreased crime there was a spike in criminal activites, including killings. He said: "We know there is always going to be a resurgence of crime. It doesn't always go flatline and always go in one direction. "It would go along for a period of time that everything is going well and the crime rate is down. Then all of a sudden we will have, for whatever reason, a spike in crime - and what do we have to do to get us back on track? Bring the crime rates down?" Describing crime as "dynamic," with changing patterns globally, Gibbs said part of the crime-fighting strategy was to adapt to legislative and technical change. "As a police organisation we also have to adapt to change, If we don't, the bad guys go free. If we don't keep up with our policing practice to guard against the illegal use of the Internet, for instance, we are left very vulnerable," he said. On the detection rate, which was reported to be below ten per cent, Gibbs expressed dissatisfaction. He said only when the rate came up to 100 per cent, would he be satisfied. "We definitely need to increase our detection rate. But on a bigger point, we need to prevent the crimes from taking place in the first instance, where they may be happening, in terms of any hotspot locations," he said.
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Homicides
Month 2012 2011
January 38 47
February 23 25
March 30 34
April 33 27
May 37 28
(Source T&T Police Service)