(Trinidad Guardian) Up to 11.30 am yesterday, 321 murders were committed for the year thus far, compared to 302 for the corresponding period last year.
Of the confirmed number, the Police Service yesterday said it had solved 52 of them.
Speaking at the weekly police press briefing at the Police Administration Building, Sackville Street, Port-of-Spain, public information officer ASP Michael Pierre admitted there had been a 6.3 per cent increase in the murder rate.
Appealing to members of the public to assist the police by providing information which will lead to the successful prosecution of suspects involved in murders and other serious crimes, Pierre was unable to say what was responsible for the upsurge.
He said: “To specify the reason for the change we have to look at all types of offences that are taking place.
“However,” he added, “the accessibility to guns has been a major issue, as 80 per cent of murders are done using guns.”
Pierre said while that “speaks volumes in terms of the murders being committed,” the onus was now on citizens to report what information they had to assist the police to solve outstanding murders and other crimes.
Claiming the Police Service had recovered in excess of 460 guns for the year so far, Pierre said T&T’s porous borders had facilitated much of the murders now being committed with guns.
“We still recognise there is a challenge with the murders and guns in our nation,” he said.
Commending the work by the Inter Agency Task Force to recover illegal weapons, especially throughout east Port-of-Spain, Laventille and Morvant, Pierre said the collaboration with the Defence Force had been working well.
Touching briefly on the role of the Coast Guard to secure the country’s ports of entry, Pierre said all components of national security had to work together to ensure the safety and security of citizens.
Not wanting to down play the role of the heads responsible for national security, Pierre said: “There have been meetings regarding the crime situation in T&T and we are expecting a positive outcome from those meetings.”
One such meeting took place at the Ministry of National Security on Tuesday during which National Security Minister Edmund Dillon met with heads of various security agencies to discuss strategies to combat the spike in murders and generally reduce serious crimes.
Unwilling to reveal exactly what had been discussed, Pierre assured: “The TTPS is constantly reviewing the crime situation and engaging in different efforts to combat rising crime. You will see exercises over a period of time.”
Pressed to say if the unsolved murders were being investigated, Pierre said there was no deadline by which to solve them which, he claimed, remained active investigations.
Boasting of an 11 per cent reduction in serious crimes from January to September 22, 2015, Pierre said the number of serious crimes as of September 22, 2014 stood at 9,004 as against 7,082 in 2015.
Among the crime types classified as serious are murders, woundings and shootings, rape, incest and other sexual offences, kidnapping, fraud, burglaries and break-ins, larceny of motor vehicles and possession of narcotics.
