Trinidad: Crime against children up sharply

(Trinidad Guardian) De­spite a 45 per cent in­crease in the last two years, the Child Pro­tec­tion Unit (CPU) of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) has made 29 ar­rests and laid 44 charges for this year so far.

Ac­cord­ing to the CPU’s Sgt Va­lerie Hospedales, who was speak­ing dur­ing the week­ly TTPS’ me­dia brief­ing, over the past three years, the unit has doc­u­ment­ed a steady in­crease of 137 per cent in the num­ber of re­ports of crim­i­nal of­fences com­mit­ted against chil­dren.

Where vi­o­lent of­fences such as cru­el­ty to chil­dren are con­cerned, there has been an in­crease of 61 per cent from 2017 to 2018.

In 2019, 214 ar­rests were con­duct­ed; 68 more than 2018.

In 2019, 590 charges were laid.

“In terms of 2019 out­reach fig­ures, the Unit was able to sen­si­tise over 6,300 stu­dents, par­ents, teach­ers and mem­bers of the pub­lic re­gard­ing the rights of the na­tion’s chil­dren, crim­i­nal of­fences against mi­nors, as well as the role of the Child Pro­tec­tion Unit,” Hospedales said.

“How­ev­er, these fig­ures in­di­cate that the work of the Unit is ef­fec­tive in en­cour­ag­ing mem­bers of the pub­lic to make re­ports. It is on­ly through such trans­paren­cy, col­lab­o­ra­tion and your co­op­er­a­tion that the Child Pro­tec­tion Unit can suc­cess­ful­ly ex­e­cute its work,” she added.

With the Car­ni­val sea­son up­on us, Hospedales re­in­forced the need for par­ents and guardians to take ex­tra care and cau­tion where the young ones are con­cerned.

“It is im­por­tant to en­sure our chil­dren’s safe­ty, whether or not they are di­rect­ly par­tic­i­pat­ing in the ac­tiv­i­ties.

“As par­ents and guardians, it is our re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to prop­er­ly sur­veil­lance our sur­round­ings and proac­tive­ly iden­ti­fy po­ten­tial threats and take mea­sures to neu­tralise or re­duce said threats,” she said.

“There­fore, I urge par­ents, care­givers and mem­bers of the pub­lic to en­gage in manda­to­ry re­port­ing. Your as­sis­tance can save a child’s life and it is al­so in co­her­ence with the law.

“Ad­di­tion­al­ly, we ad­vise par­ents and guardians to find al­ter­na­tive meth­ods of dis­ci­pline and to not in­flict bod­i­ly harm, phys­i­cal abuse and any mea­sure of cru­el­ty to your young ones.

“Nur­tu­rance, pro­tec­tion, love and care is your du­ty and es­sen­tial to the healthy de­vel­op­ment of all chil­dren,” she added.