Assistant Police Commissioner in charge of South, Cecil Santana, said vagrants were being recycled in the southern city and has called on mayor Kazim Hosein to help address the social issue.
Santana’s comments came as he addressed a police town meeting at City Hall, San Fernando, on Wednesday night.
Many complaints were raised about the homeless who are freely roaming the streets of the southern city. Even Hosein talked about some of them walking almost naked.
Stating this was a social problem, Santana said there was little the police could do.
“We take them off today, we charge them, take them before the court and by Saturday they are out. It is a recurring problem. They (he did not identify who they were) just recycling vagrants in San Fernando.”
Santana asked the mayor for some kind of policy or recommendations through the council to rid the streets of the city of vagrants.
Hosein said he had allocated money from the mayor’s project fund to refurbish the Revival Time Assembly quarters on King’s Wharf to feed and clothe the homeless.
He said he was recommending that people stop feeding them which encouraged the homeless to take up occupation on the streets.
Residents also complained about the traffic gridlock, vending, noise pollution as it related to the blasting of music on High Street and residential areas.
The mayor also raised the issue of the congestion along Harris Promenade in front of the San Fernando Police Station, caused by the parking of vehicles involved in road traffic accidents.
Santana assured the matter would be addressed.
He renewed a call for citizens to partner with the police in their effort to make T&T a crime-free environment.
He said while there had been and increase in homicides in the southern region, which they are hoping to bring under control, there had been a reduction in other serious crimes
“Despite this, we know that the TTPS is being judged by the number of homicides.
“Nevertheless, we have undertaken several initiatives and are doing everything possible to bring a measure of reduction in these homicides and by extension some level of safety to the citizens of T&T,” he added.
He said the police had been conducting a number of anti-crime exercises, including roadblocks and traffic exercises with an emphasis on drunk driving and recovery of guns.
“We have seen some success. Recently officers of the Southern Division recovered several high-powered guns and over 1,000 rounds of ammunition,” he added.
Underscoring that 80 per cent of the homicides are caused by the use of firearms, Santana said the more illegal guns they took of the streets, the more likely they would see a reduction in homicides.
He called on citizens to supply them with information regarding crimes occurring in their districts, who the perpetrators were and where they were hiding the guns by using several hotline, including 800-Tips, 999 or 555.
He asked those gathered at City Hall to consider, “that the lives taken by firearms you did not tell us about, could be your own.”