The Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty says a new study by the Unit­ed States Agency for In­ter­na­tion­al De­vel­op­ment (US­AID) on crime and crim­i­nal­i­ty in Trinidad and To­ba­go will play a cru­cial role in for­mu­lat­ing strate­gies to com­bat crim­i­nal gangs in the coun­try.

Dur­ing a meet­ing held on Mon­day, Fitzger­ald Hinds, Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, was pre­sent­ed with the US­AID Crim­i­nal Dy­nam­ics Study for Trinidad and To­ba­go, along with its key find­ings.

In a me­dia re­lease to­day, the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty said this com­pre­hen­sive study of­fers crit­i­cal in­sights and rec­om­men­da­tions nec­es­sary for de­vel­op­ing ef­fec­tive strate­gies to com­bat gang-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ties.

It said the meet­ing, which took place at the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Of­fice at Tow­er C, In­ter­na­tion­al Wa­ter­front Com­plex, Wright­son Road, Port of Spain, saw Min­is­ter Hinds in dis­cus­sions with Can­dace Bond, Unit­ed States Am­bas­sador to Trinidad and To­ba­go, and rep­re­sen­ta­tives from US­AID.

The min­istry said the event pro­vid­ed an op­por­tu­ni­ty for Trinidad and To­ba­go and the Unit­ed States to strength­en their col­lab­o­ra­tion on shared crime and se­cu­ri­ty con­cerns.

Am­bas­sador Bond ex­pressed op­ti­mism that the study would il­lu­mi­nate the root caus­es of gang ac­tiv­i­ties in Trinidad and To­ba­go, aid­ing in the im­ple­men­ta­tion of in­ter­ven­tions de­signed to counter, dis­rupt, and dis­man­tle gangs.

She em­pha­sised the im­por­tance of the Unit­ed States' on­go­ing part­ner­ship with Trinidad and To­ba­go, par­tic­u­lar­ly through ini­tia­tives like the Caribbean Basin Se­cu­ri­ty Ini­tia­tive, recog­nis­ing the Caribbean as the U.S.'s “Third Bor­der.”

” Oth­er ini­tia­tives to com­bat crime and gang-re­lat­ed ac­tivism in­clude, the U.S. De­part­ment of Com­merce's pause on li­cens­es for ex­port­ing weapons to non-state, civil­ian deal­ers, ex­pect­ed to re­duce firearm ex­ports to the re­gion by 35%, im­pact­ing high-risk coun­tries in­clud­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go; U.S. sup­port for the Crime Gun In­tel­li­gence Unit (CGIU), fos­ter­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion with CARI­COM IM­PACS, the Bu­reau of Al­co­hol, To­bac­co, Firearms and Ex­plo­sives (ATF), Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty In­ves­ti­ga­tions (HSI), Cus­toms and Bor­der Pro­tec­tion (CBP), and the Bu­reau of In­dus­try and Se­cu­ri­ty (BIS); and Train­ing for CGIU of­fi­cers pro­vid­ed by agen­cies such as ATF, HSI, BIS, CBP, In­ter­pol, the World Cus­toms Or­ga­ni­za­tion (WCO), and the Unit­ed Na­tions Of­fice on Drugs and Crime (UN­ODC).”

Dur­ing the meet­ing, Mervyn Far­roe, US­AID's Re­gion­al Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for the East­ern and South­ern Caribbean, re­it­er­at­ed US­AID's com­mit­ment to col­lab­o­rat­ing with the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty to ad­dress crime and vi­o­lence, par­tic­u­lar­ly through re­search sup­port­ing pol­i­cy de­vel­op­ment. Min­is­ter Hinds wel­comed the study, ex­press­ing grat­i­tude to US­AID and Am­bas­sador Bond for their sup­port in Trinidad and To­ba­go’s fight against crime.

He un­der­scored the im­por­tance of vi­o­lence in­ter­ven­tion pro­grams to bol­ster com­mu­ni­ty re­silience against crime and gangs.