PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):
EMBATTLED NATIONAL Security Minister, Martin Joseph, has acknowledged that the level of murders in Trinidad and Tobago was at an "unacceptable rate," and blamed the cocaine trade for fuelling the criminal activities in the country.
"It is a fact that the level of murders is at an unacceptable rate at this time, and what is also very frightening is that the level of detection is also unacceptable," said Joseph, as he made his contribution to the debate on the 2005-6 budget on Monday.
Joseph said that for the period January 1, 2004 to August 24, this year, there were 344 homicides with only 58 or 16.6 per cent detected. So far this year, more than 280 people have been murdered.
LACK OF CLARITY
"That is unacceptable," Joseph told legislators, blaming the situation on a lack of structural and operational clarity, lack of dedicated resources, processing delays and lack of homicide investigator experience.
He said as a result, the Homicide Prevention Group had been established in keeping with the recommendations outlined by Professor Mastrofski and Partners, who also suggested that the detection rate would increase by 30 per cent between November 2005 and January 2006.
Joseph said that Cabinet would soon be asked to consider hiring retired officers, who worked at the homicide bureau.
Joseph said that drugs, especially cocaine, were "fuelling a lot of criminal activities in Trinidad and Tobago and a new development is that the drugs are coming with guns, and the guns stay, while the cocaine goes, and that is fuelling the criminal activity."
The National Security Minister said that the Special Anti-Crime Unit of Trinidad and Tobago (SAUTT) would be working closely with Britain's Scotland Yard and the United States Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) to deal with the homicides, kidnapping and bombings in the country.
"The population wants some action now and the FBI and Scotland Yard will do just that," he said.
Joseph said that the recent bombings in London had delayed investigations into the three bombings here this year by FBI officials.
"The Government has been treating the investigations relating to the three recent bombings in Port of Spain with the greatest sense of urgency," he said.
"However the FBI crime labs have been giving priority to the analysis of samples from the London bombings, as a result there has been some delay in completing the analysis of samples from the Port of Spain incidents," he said.
Joseph said that 225 police officers have been re-called from holidays and 350 others have been re-assigned from desk jobs to undertake more core duties as the authorities seek to deal with the rising crime problem.
