KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

Down­town Own­ers and Mer­chants As­so­ci­a­tion (DO­MA) pres­i­dent Gre­go­ry Aboud says that while the ar­rests of sev­er­al gang mem­bers are en­cour­ag­ing, it is too ear­ly to pre­dict what ef­fect it will have on the mur­der rate. How­ev­er, he is al­so sug­gest­ing the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) im­ple­ments an in­cen­tive sys­tem for of­fi­cers in­volved in the fight to get the gang­sters off the streets.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Aboud sug­gest­ed a per­for­mance-based in­cen­tive sys­tem for the TTPS, say­ing there should be a mea­sure­ment ap­proach in which of­fi­cers get re­wards for their ef­forts, such as recog­ni­tion, pro­mo­tions and re­mu­ner­a­tion.

“In that sort of en­vi­ron­ment, you can ex­pect an im­prove­ment in the de­tec­tion rate and a re­duc­tion in the mur­der rate.”

He lament­ed yes­ter­day’s mur­ders at St Paul Street, Port-of-Spain, which he said had been rel­a­tive­ly qui­et for some time. He said DO­MA re­mained hope­ful that po­lice recog­nised the need for a con­stant ef­fort to curb mur­ders dai­ly.

Aboud said it was a fact that round­ing up al­leged gang lead­ers was on­ly a short-term ini­tia­tive un­less po­lice lay charges.

“This is the first time we are hear­ing that a round-up has been made, and I think it is too ear­ly to say that it was a good idea to have done this ini­tia­tive be­cause we have to wait and see if it bears fruit in the form of a re­duced num­ber of mur­ders,” Aboud said.

With gang­sters run­ning ram­pant in the cap­i­tal city over the past weeks, Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher sanc­tioned sev­er­al an­ti-gang op­er­a­tions which start­ed on Thurs­day.

A team of of­fi­cers from the Bel­mont Po­lice Sta­tion, Besson Street Po­lice Sta­tion, In­ter-Agency Task Force, Guard and Emer­gency Branch, Crim­i­nal Gang and In­tel­li­gence Unit and mem­bers of the T&T Reg­i­ment ex­e­cut­ed sev­er­al raids, de­scribed as gang sweeps. Of­fi­cers ar­rest­ed at least 15 mem­bers of three gangs, in­clud­ing the sus­pect­ed leader of the Sixx Gang.

A se­nior of­fi­cer said po­lice were will­ing to con­tin­ue the ex­er­cis­es for as long as pos­si­ble. He said the Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) al­so want­ed to alert gangs that they are not in con­trol.

Aboud said DO­MA agrees with the con­cerns po­lice have been ex­press­ing and sup­ports its ini­tia­tives to pro­tect cit­i­zens. How­ev­er, he re­it­er­at­ed that the on­ly de­ter­rent to crime was a fear of pros­e­cu­tion. He said crim­i­nals think­ing about killing, rob­bing, car-jack­ing and break­ing in­to peo­ple’s homes might re­con­sid­er if they were afraid of be­ing ar­rest­ed and con­vict­ed. He be­lieves that if po­lice can im­prove its ar­rest, pros­e­cu­tion and con­vic­tion rate, T&T would be on its way to be­ing a safer so­ci­ety.

“The point is that the cur­rent rate of de­tec­tion is in the re­gion of ten or 11 per cent, which means that if you com­mit a se­ri­ous crime, you have a very strong like­li­hood of get­ting away scot-free. And as you can tell, re­gard­less of how heinous the crime is, we do not seem able to muster the ef­fort to make the ar­rests and pros­e­cute the per­pe­tra­tors.”

Ac­knowl­edg­ing there is gang war­fare around the city, Aboud said even gang­sters seek jus­tice. He said if one gang mem­ber lost a friend, fam­i­ly and rel­a­tive to mur­der, da­ta shows the like­li­hood of po­lice ar­rest­ing a sus­pect was low. There­fore, gang mem­bers will take jus­tice in­to their own hands by seek­ing out the killer and ex­act­ing re­venge, he not­ed.

“This is how it is op­er­at­ing, and that net cy­cle has ac­cel­er­at­ed the mur­der rate in the coun­try.”