An­na-Lisa Paul

Po­lice of­ficiers are cur­rent­ly in­volved in a bold ini­tia­tive to stem spi­ralling crime in the Laven­tille dis­trict by en­gag­ing the com­mu­ni­ty in sev­er­al projects aimed at build­ing trust and pro­vid­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties. Of­fi­cers of the In­ter Agency Task Force (IATF) are work­ing with res­i­dents ex­pos­ing them to sev­er­al dif­fer­ent ini­tia­tives aimed at im­prov­ing com­mu­ni­ty re­la­tions. One such ven­ture is ti­tled, Hearts and Minds, whose mot­to is "Chang­ing the Hearts and Minds to Form Bet­ter Com­mu­ni­ties."

Formed in 2004 to deal with vi­o­lent and firearm-re­lat­ed crimes, IATF of­fi­cers re­alised there was a com­mu­ni­ca­tion gap be­tween mem­bers of the po­lice ser­vice and the pub­lic and are work­ing hard to en­gage the com­mu­ni­ty in crime fight­ing tech­niques. Among the out­reach pro­grammes are sum­mer camps, sports and fam­i­ly days, health fairs and up­com­ing Christ­mas treats.

As part of the ef­fort, of­fi­cers al­so vis­it schools to con­duct lec­tures aimed at of­fer­ing pos­i­tive op­tions for the youths of Laven­tille and en­vi­rons hard-hit by a re­cent spate of mur­ders. As part of the IATF's ef­forts, Laven­tille res­i­dents re­cent­ly re­ceived med­ical treat­ment over a two-day pe­ri­od from a team of mis­sion­ary doc­tors from At­lanta, Geor­gia, US at the Des­per­a­does Pa­n­yard.

Over 100 peo­ple ben­e­fit­ed from the free med­ical care pro­vid­ed on Sep­tem­ber 17 and 18, by the doc­tors through an or­gan­i­sa­tion called Mis­sions to the World (MTW). Oth­er agen­cies in­volved in the ven­ture in­clud­ed Mak­ing Life Im­por­tant, the Laven­tille Abuse De­mand Re­duc­tion Com­mit­tee; and the East Port-of-Spain De­vel­op­ment Com­mit­tee.