(Trinidad Guardian) The shooting deaths of six men in downtown Port-of-Spain within the last week have resulted in stakeholders clamouring for increased police presence in the capital and more effective crimefighting initiatives from the Police Service. The loudest call has come from Port-of-Spain Mayor Louis Lee Sing who has questioned whether the city and by extension the country really has a crime plan. “I don’t know if there is a crime plan, whether for Port-of-Spain or for the country. What is going on in the city is if three people are murdered that is a national security matter. It goes beyond local policing. “The buck stops with Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, she is the person responsible for national security matters,” Lee Sing said.
He said when Persad-Bissessar assumed office she promised a crime plan but has yet to deliver.
“We hear all the time about issues about solving crime but nobody knows what is the crime plan. And the nation needs to be reassured that something serious is happening as it relates to crime,” Lee Sing said. Asked if he was satisfied with the work of police officers at the various stations in the city, Lee Sing said the only time there will be some level of satisfaction is when no crimes are committed. Emphasising that crimes are “not necessarily” murders, Lee Sing added: “We have reached the stage in Port-of-Spain where when we talk crime we are only talking about bodies dropping down on the ground.”
