Implementing a state of emergency and improving the police detection rate are among the recommendations from experts to deal with the country's high crime rate.
One former attorney general warned: "If the criminal elements know they can commit crimes and get away that will encourage more crimes will be committed."
Over the weekend, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley sought to assuage fears about the recent upsurge on murders and other violent crimes.
"Every murder is considered objectionable by the Government but the especially abhorrent types of murders occurring in recent weeks have brought an acute sense of terror and trauma to citizens," he said in a statement.
Rowley appealed to young people who might be "influenced by or attracted to violent criminal activity to consider the frequency with which such activities end in grief not only for their families but for the wider national community, to reflect on alternatives which would provide more acceptable outcomes to their valuable lives."
However, his statement prompted angry reaction on social media, with one citizen, Sammy Lee, posting: "No, no, no, no! As the leader of government, this is grossly inadequate. It cannot be business as usual when citizens are afraid to leave their homes."
Anthony Best wrote: "Not only are criminals unconcerned about the abysmal detection rate of the TTPS ... They also are aware of the inordinate delays in the judicial system which prevents implementing the death penalty (Pratt & Morgan...) until institutions are fixed and justice swiftly applied nothing will change."
Criminologist Danielle Francois offered only a "no comment" to the Prime Minister's statement but was of the view that most of the killings are gang-related.
"It is a gang power struggle and whenever that happens we see an increase in the murder rate," she said.
Francois said both the public and the police need to step up their game.
"Police need to feel empowered to do the high risk job they are required to do," she said.
Francois also believes that acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams "feels he can exercise the authority to do what is required." She was also concerned that citizens don't feel comfortable to give information to the police.
While noting that hanging was still allowed under the laws of T&T, she said she was ambivalent on the issue.
Head of the Political Sciences Department at UWI Dr Bishnu Ragoonath described the Prime Minister's appeal to young people as "a statement of weakness, which signalled to the country that he has no idea of how to deal with the crime problem."
"It was very weak of the Prime Minister who should be more assertive and say how government is dealing with the problem."
Ragoonath described as "terrifying" the fact that there was no co-relation between Rowley's call for perpetrators to be brought to justice and the police detection rate which he said "is daily going downwards."
"They will say is the police responsible for detection but when you have an acting Commissioner who insists that crime is going down although the murder rate is going up then we have a challenge," he said.
"I think if the Government goes to the people and tells the people the level of criminality has gone to the extreme where we have to implement a state of emergency, more than half of the country will say yes. The country is living in fear.
"I prefer to live in fear of the police and the army than in fear of some unknown criminal. I don't mind giving up some of my rights at this point in time," Ragoonath said.