The year started with one of the highest numbers of murders ever recorded in a single month—more than 50. It is ending with the toll close to 500, with murders taking place at a rate of about 40 a month.
In was a year in which a serious search was mounted for a Commissioner of Police, a manpower audit was done on the T&T Police Service (TTPS), there was a major shake-up in the elite Special Branch and the final report on the total day of policing two years ago holds officers responsible for that fiasco.
Police squared off with Beetham residents whose protests involved blocking major roadways into Port of Spain—the Beetham Highway and the Priority Bus Route (PBR).
The incident in November had major repercussions across the country, as residents reacted angrily to a police exercise aimed at weeding out gang leaders. They blocked roadways surrounding their community with burning debris and threw missiles at motorists caught in the girdlock that resulted.
It took several hours for the situation to return to any semblance of normalcy.
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, who was attending a function in Couva at the time, brushed off T&T Guardian senior reporter Radhica Sookraj when she sought a comment from him, saying he was there to discuss “Couva business.” However, less than 24 hours later, he called together together his national security team to discuss the incident, then hosted a news conference at which he condemned the “lawlessness” and warned that his administration would not tolerate “anarchy.”
In December, the country witnessed a showdown of a different kind, this time in Parliament, with the debate of the Anti-Gang Bill. Attorney General Faris al Rawi set the stage for the debate when he reveaked that between 2014-2017 the number of gangs in the country had increased by 129 per cent and there had been a 60 per cent increase in gang members.
When the Bill, which required a three-fifths majority, did not get Opposition support, Al-Rawi angrily pointed out that crime was at an all-time high and there had been “an exponential rise in gang activity.”
Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar said her conscience was “clear” on the matter. Days later, at a UNC Monday Night Forum in Debe, she blamed Prime Minister Rowley for the defeat of the legislation.
The sticking point was the sunset clause. Government wanted it to be four years, the Oppostion insisted on no more than two years. The Bill cannot return to Parliament for six months.
In the days and weeks after that legislative stand-off, bloodshed continued, mostly fatal shootings. PC Richard Babwah was shot and killed during a robbery at the Long Yuan Chinese Restaurant in Arouca. The off-duty officer, who had gone to the restaurant to buy dinner for his family, was killed during an exchange of gunfire with two bandits
Another police officer, PC Anand Ram, was shot by bandits during a robbery at the home of a bank manager in Marabella. He was injured but survived. However, one of the suspects, a 15-year-old student of Carapichaima Secondary School, Isaiah Simmons, was killed in a shoot out with police at the scene.
The hunt for a Comissioner of Police moved into high gear, with acting CoP Stephen Williams among candidates short listed for the post along with Police Social and Welfare Association president Inspector Michael Seales and former national Security Minister Gary Griffith.
The substantive post has been vacant since the departure of Canadian Dwayne Gibbs in 2012.
In October, a 600-page report from the Police Manpower Audit Committee headed by Professor Ramesh Deosaran was handed in to Prime Minister Rowley who said would be the blueprint for transformation of the TTPS.
Establishment of an integrity cleansing system to examine questionable lifestyles and finances of officers is among the report’s 100 recommendations.
Two years after a “total policing” exercise caused nationwide traffic gridlock, the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) rekeased its findings and recommended criminal or disciplinary action against some police officers.
The report’has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecution, acting CoP and Police Service Commission. Its recommendations include restructuring of the Special Branch, the premier intelligence gathering agency of the TTPS, which, according to the PCA, failed to detect and report on the intended activities.
There was a shake-up at the Special Branch but it was not the result of the PCA’s recommendation. In August, acting CoP Williams sent Special Branch head ACP Ainsley Garrick on leave and transferred his deputy Snr Supt Austin Lee to the South Western Division. This action followed concerns raised about the unit’s counter-terrorism efforts.
Another TTPS shake up had occurred ten days into the new year when Williams wrote to Eastern Division head Snr Supt John Trim and Snr Supt Simbonath Rajkumar, former head of the Northern Division, asking them to explain shortcomings in crime fighting their divisions.
Crime statistics
In August, the TTPS reported that detection rates in the South Western, Eastern, Tobago and Southern police divisions had improved beyond the 30 per cent international benchmark. The Port-of-Spain, Western and Tobago divisions recorded the largest declines in serious crime from 2016.
However, for the first six months of the year, there were 251 murders compared to 229 in the corresponding period in 2016. Of those 251 murders, 19 per cent have been solved by the Homicide Bureau of Investigations.
Police seized 509 illegal firearms and 6,343 rounds of assorted ammunition compared to 402 guns and 5,493 rounds of ammunition in the corresponding period, last year.
Vicky’s brief taste of freedom
Two police officers have been charged with helping prisoner Vicky Boodram, 35, escape from the Women’s Prison at Golden Grove, Arouca, in November. At the time she was in remand for 175 fraud related charges.
Boodram was recaptured after just three days on the run at a house in Penal and is now facing an addition charge of escaping lawful custody.
Three persons are now charged in connection with her escape. They are PC LeVon Sylvester, WPC Lisa Navarro and Roxanne Cudjoe.
Boodram has been in remand since March 2016 on multiple fraud related charges:
• 127 counts of demanding property by virtue of a forged instrument
• 25 counts of larceny
• 10 counts of uttering a forged document
• 5 counts of forgery of a bill of exchange for valuable security with intent to defraud
• 3 counts of attempting to obtain property by false pretenses
• 2 counts of money laundering
• Uttering a false valuable security
• Obtaining credit by fraud
• Causing the delivery of property by virtue of a forged instrument.