CSP boss: We’re making positive impact on crime

Since its inception in 2008, the Citizen Security Programme (CSP) has spent $60 million out of its $220 million budget on efforts aimed at reducing crime and violence. But what is the CSP? Where has that money been spent? And what has it achieved? It has had a very low profile. Nevertheless, the CSP has come under heavy criticism from the public, which is well noted on the programme’s blogging portal. In light of the crime situation, one comment described the programme as a “monumental failure with $220 million of our money evaporating like gas on a hot tin roof.” But the CSP’s programme co-ordinator Gregory Sloane-Seale sought to clear the air on what exactly is the purpose of the programme and what it has done in its four years. He said in the 22 high-risk communities (listed in sidebar) where its social-intervention plans were implemented, there has been a significant reduction in criminal activities. In an interview at the CSP’s Mucurapo Road, St James, office, Sloane-Seale said the programme was an initiative of the Ministry of National Security, which was implemented under the PNM Government.

 

The project is expected to end in July 2014. He explained that the CSP was a six-year pilot programme aimed at addressing the risk factors that contributed to crime and violence in CSP communities around the country. Its performance and spending is monitored by the Inter-American Development Bank and the Ministry of Planning and Sustainable Economy. Sloane-Seale says 54 per cent of the CSP’s resources are focused on community-based interventions. “This is where we have a heavy pro-social approach, through crime and violence prevention, addressing what we call the most modifiable and probable risk factors,”  he said. In that component, he said a community action committee (CAC) was set up in each community and includes staff who were trained in violence prevention, child-abuse prevention, mediation, counselling and parenting. That effort, he added, was aimed at training people to deal with their own social challenges. Those committees comprised members of youth organisations, religious groups, village councils, sporting associations and community-based organisations (CBO), he added. The second component, he said, dealth with increasing the capacity of the police by providing psychosocial support for officers. That aspect of CSP’s plan, he said, included the recruitment of six social workers and two supervisors who were added to the Police Service’s Human Resource Unit. Those social workers engaged in specific training for members of the police Victim and Witness Support Unit (VWSU) on topics such as stress reduction and coping skills, he added. The third element of the CSP, Sloane-Seale said, looked at increasing the capacity of the Ministry of National Security by focusing on data collection and data analysis, in an effort to improve policy formation.

 

What has the CSP achieved? 

Sloane-Seale said over the past four years, there have been signs that the CSP was making a positive impact on affected communities. He said similar social-intervention programmes had worked in Canada and that people needed to look at what was happening and understand that it took time for such programmes to show their worth fully. Asked what the CSP had achieved, he said: “It has contributed to building community cohesion by increasing co-operation among groups who organise and implement community-based activities. “It has built the capacity of dozens of NGOs and CBOs who continue to implement preventive and intervention programmes on the ground; improved relationships with police in CSP partner communities; exposed community members and organisations to information and skill sets to address and counteract key risk factors related to domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, intra-community and inter-community conflicts and lack of supervision for young persons within the communities.”

 

Also defending the value of the programme was Dr Randy Seepersad, a criminologist at the University of the West Indies’ St Augustine Campus, who said the CSP was making a significant impact, especially as its communities were some of those where it was hardest to make a dent in crime. Seepersad has worked as an independent consultant with the CSP. He added: “I believe CSP is a missing link in the country’s crime plan because its approach is preventative, while the typical approach that the criminal justice system takes is reactive. Compare that to a heart attack: Isn’t it better to prevent it rather than try to recover from it? “The Ministry of National Security...they let whatever happens and then people commit crime and they just come to arrest the criminals. “In my opinion as a criminologist,  I can tell you that prevention is the key to having a sustained decrease in the crime. The problem is that it is not a quick fix overnight and that is not what the politicians want and not what people want.”

 

Tomorrow: Part Two—How much effect the CSP had on crime?

 

CSP communities

TRINIDAD:

Beetham Gardens;

Cocorite;

Covigne Road, Diego Martin;

Dibe/Belle Vue/Dundonald Hill;

Embacadere, San Fernando;

Enterprise, Chaguanas;

Farm Road, St Joseph;

Gonzales, Belmont;

La Romaine;

Mon Repos, Morvant;

Mt D'Or Road, Champs Fleurs;

Never Dirty, Morvant;

North Eastern Settlement;

Patna/River Estate, Diego Martin;

Pinto Road, Arima;

Quash Trace, Sangre Grande;

Samaroo Village/ Mootoo Lands;

Sogren Trace, Laventille; and

St Barb's, Laventille.

 

TOBAGO:

Bethel;

Bon Accord; and

Glen Road/Darrel Spring.