SHAS­TRI BOODAN

GML Cor­re­spon­dent

The Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Ca­roni Cen­tral, Dr David Lee, has pledged to in­ten­si­fy ef­forts to im­prove po­lice pa­trols, street light­ing, and road con­di­tions in Carlsen Field, in an at­tempt to stem the tide of vi­o­lent crime plagu­ing the com­mu­ni­ty.

His call comes in the wake of a se­ries of mur­ders that have shak­en res­i­dents and height­ened fears for their safe­ty.

On Sep­tem­ber 16, 53-year-old Raidal Per­sad—an em­ploy­ee of Methanex Ltd—was found dead, shot in­side his ve­hi­cle. Ear­li­er this year on Jan­u­ary 21, Rolan­do Suther­land, 44, a CEPEP work­er, was gunned down just a short dis­tance from his home in Carlsen Field. In June, the body of Sa­van­nah Dy­er, a 21-year-old woman, was dis­cov­ered af­ter she had been killed and dumped in the area.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia via tele­phone, MP Lee said he has been in con­stant di­a­logue with res­i­dents and the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties to ad­dress the spi­ralling sit­u­a­tion.

“I have spo­ken with the Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty, who has as­sured me that po­lice pa­trols will in­crease in the area. I have al­so reached out to the T&T Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion to en­sure that bro­ken and de­fec­tive street­lights are re­paired or re­placed as a mat­ter of ur­gency,” Dr Lee stat­ed.

The Ca­roni Cen­tral MP al­so high­light­ed the poor state of the road net­work in Carlsen Field as a ma­jor se­cu­ri­ty risk. “The roads are in such ter­ri­ble con­di­tion that mo­torists can­not dri­ve at a nor­mal speed. From a se­cu­ri­ty point of view, this puts peo­ple at even greater risk, as they be­come easy tar­gets for crim­i­nals. I have al­ready con­tact­ed both the Min­is­ter of Works and the Min­is­ter of Agri­cul­ture to press for road re­pairs in the area,” Lee ex­plained.

Res­i­dents of Carlsen Field, many of whom re­ly on farm­ing and small-scale trad­ing, have long com­plained of ne­glect and un­der­de­vel­op­ment. The lack of ad­e­quate in­fra­struc­ture, cou­pled with lim­it­ed po­lice vis­i­bil­i­ty, has cre­at­ed con­di­tions where crim­i­nals can op­er­ate with rel­a­tive ease.

Dr Lee stressed that restor­ing a sense of safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty in Carlsen Field re­quires a co­or­di­nat­ed ef­fort be­tween cen­tral gov­ern­ment, law en­force­ment, and util­i­ty providers.

He not­ed that while pa­trols and light­ing im­prove­ments are vi­tal, fix­ing the roads al­so would sig­nal to res­i­dents that the State is tak­ing their plight se­ri­ous­ly.