Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley says the ten per cent murder detection rate by the T&T Police Service is unacceptable, adding the People’s National Movement will do all in its power to give the service all the tools it needs to address crime.
He made the comment in a wide-ranging interview on I95FM’s evening drive radio programme yesterday.
Rowley said the police must work diligently to improve the detection rate, noting: “That is not the teacher’s job, or the parson’s job, or the telephone operator’s job... that is the job of the police.”
He said the Government was aiming to put security services in a position to prevent or detect crime and prevention would include getting firearms off the streets and preventing trade in illegal guns. Information gathering to identify the criminals would be an important part of the process, he added.
He admitted, however, that the police were being hampered by a lack of motivation within its ranks and the failure of the public to co-operate with their crime-fighting initiatives.
“We have a Police Service which we know is demoralised and does not have the support of the population to determine who is doing what in the neighbourhood.”
Noting that the existing anti-gang legislation had done little to curb the gang violence, Rowley said among possible anti-crime actions by his Government would be the idea of local constabularies in the regional corporations. He said although this would add to the cost of running the country, crime also had a cost.
“If we can't secure ourselves everything else would fall by the wayside so we have to make the sacrifice to incur the cost of making our streets and our neighbourhoods safer and detect crime when criminal conduct is displayed,” he added.
On the issue of corruption, Rowley said the PNM would have to ensure systems were put in place to root it out.
“Many citizens are disturbed at the way we have spent a lot of money and a lot of it went into the hands of people who ought not to have handled it. The level of waste and corruption in this country is unacceptable,” he said.
He added: “We always point to the public sector as the source and the area where corruption is a problem. That's a mistake.
“The private sector is an integral part of the corruption in T&T because public officers usually have to integrate with elements of the private sector to carry out corrupt practices... and the systems have to be such that governance and spending public money is more open and transparent. Without that, we will have this going on forever.
“So what we are going to try to do is to put more open systems in place. It is the light of openness and consequences for wrongdoing that will change.”
On the issue of Government priorities after next Monday's budget and ensuing budget debates, Rowley said Government would be focussing on three areas: Whistleblower legislation, local government reform and initiating national discussion on campaign financing.