(Trinidad Express) New Canadian Police Commis-sioner Dwayne Douglas Gibbs said on Monday that he has a lot of ideas and thoughts on how to deal with crime in Trinidad and Tobago, but they will have to wait until he talks with the authorities to determine how to forge ahead with them.
Gibbs was approved as police commissioner last Friday in Parliament, but as of Monday had not yet been contacted. In an exclusive interview with the Express, Gibbs said based on the information he was provided with, crime here has escalated to unacceptable proportion and he has several ideas and plans on how to tackle the issue, particularly gang-related crimes.
“Certainly from the information that I have received there (from Penn State University), is (that) over the last five to ten years (there has been) an escalation of crime, incidents of (involving the) use of small arms and probably all related to, and much of it related to the drug trade and gangs and organised crime,” Gibbs said.
“I have lots of ideas and thoughts but some of them are going to have to wait until I have a talk with the authorities in terms of direction. It’s going to be very much on my mind now that it starts to occur.”
He added, “All violent crimes are concern for any country and community, when you have crime that’s that horrific, it creates fear of crime to communities. I’m hoping to provide at least a sort of hope that we could get those crime issues under control, and build back community trust with the Police Service, and basically build back the engagement as a community to help deal with their own crime issues with the support of the Police Service.” Another issue Gibbs said he would tackle is police corruption, which will not be tolerated by his new executive. He said he intends to meet with all the various stakeholders to ensure officers are properly compensated for their work.
“It’s not acceptable for corruption. It’s not acceptable for police officers to lower their integrity and be involved with criminal elements. There are many different factors that go along with that, and why that corruption exists. I hope to get to the root of it and help the service back on track in terms of their professionalism and their purpose for their work,” he said.
