(Trinidad Express) Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs said yesterday that in the last two months of 2012 there has been a resurgence of homicides.
Up to May 28 last year there were 161 murders.
Up to yesterday, however, the murder toll stood at 166, with a total of 35 homicides between April 1 and April 30 while there were 40 between May 1 and May 28.
Gibbs said significant strides were made during the State of Emergency which lasted from August until the beginning of December in terms of intelligence gathering and knowing who the main crime players were.
“Into 2012, however, we have seen a resurgence in homicides in the last two months and we are now trying to determine why it is happening and what has changed,” he said.
Gibbs added, “During the State of Emergency we gained a lot of intelligence in organised crime groups and we set up the Gang Suppression Unit which focuses on intelligence and sets out to predict where the next violent act will break out.”
Gibbs was speaking at a National Security Ministry review of its security policies which was held at Crowne Plaza, Port of Spain, yesterday.
Present were National Security Minister John Sandy, Chief of Defence Staff Brig Kenrick Maharaj, Prisons Commissioner Martin Martinez and Chief Fire Officer Carl Williams.
Gibbs outlined his own plans to combat crime by expanding the 21st Century Policing initiative in the Police’s Northern and Port of Spain Divisions.
He also announced that closed circuit television cameras were going to be installed in other hot-spot areas which he said would assist greatly in their deployments strategies. The police will also continue their warrant exercises, he added.
“We can start by working together and also promote training and education and we have to have clearly defined plans for getting there and we will rely on every group and organisation working with us to tell us what they have been doing to deal with the crime issues because we cannot do it alone,” said Gibbs.
He continued, “we’ve gotta look at the affected youth and create opportunities that goes past mere survival needs but rather opportunities for them to reach their potential.”
He said that he even spoke to some of the young men in so-called disadvantaged communities and what he found disturbing was that 20 -year-olds did not see any future for themselves but rather they wanted opportunities to be extended to those young men younger than themselves, “but this is where this group, especially the business and religious groups, can help because these young people have a lot of potential but they just don’t have the opportunities to use this potential.”
