National Security Minister retired Major General Edmund Dillon said that there should be no politicising of crime as he responded to claims by former health minister Dr Fuad Khan that the People’s National Movement is to be blamed for the number of murders since election.
Khan, the Member of Parliament for San Juan/Barataria said in a statement on Sunday: “This escalation of crime and murders affects communities and individuals in a manner in which they feel that they can no longer trust the police to protect them, which creates vigilantism and increased violence when people decide to fight back.
“This PNM needs to assume the responsibility of their office and immediately implement measures to decrease the murder rate before it reaches a point where it can no longer be contained. Because asking the nation to “Let’s do this together” does not work if the Government isn’t doing anything at all.”
Asked about the statement yesterday following a meeting of the heads of the various national security agencies at the Ministry of National Security, Dillon said: “We cannot politicize crime, we must take a methodological approach in dealing with the issues of crime and that’s the approach that we want and I am taking.”
Asked what, if anything, will be done to curb the escalating murder rate, Dillon said that was an integral part of the discussions of the agency heads, including Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Kenrick Maharaj and acting Commissioner of Police (CoP), Stephen Williams.
He added that a second meeting will take place today which will deal specifically with the operational aspects of crime fighting while yesterday’s meeting with dealt with the architectural layout.
Asked what if any changes will be made to the existing national security layout, Dillon said he was unable to say now as the national security heads have to review all that they have and move from there and yesterday’s meeting was assessing that.
Dillon said that the ministry will use the recently received Coast Guard vessels to protect the borders. When asked about offshore patrol vessels, Dillon said the need for such equipment will always arise but the security services will use what is available for now.
“The Commissioner of Police continues to do the gun-retrieval programme. It must be a collaborative approach because not only do we need these guns off the streets, we need to focus on how do the guns get in the country, and how can we prevent them from getting here,” Dillon said, adding that all will be done to weed out the rogue police officers in the process.
He added: “As we continue to deal with the strategic ideas, we have to understand the reality on the ground is what confronts us. The CoP and the CDS will work on the operational aspects.
In fact as we speak there are operational aspects in play now. From since early this morning dealing with the crime situation so there are simultaneous approaches. We cannot deal with strategic things without an understanding of the reality on the ground. Tomorrow (today) morning I am again meeting with the CoP and CDS to deal with operational matters.”