(Trinidad Express) Former United States prosecutor Perry Kendall Jr is working with the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) to strengthen its prosecution of gang members in this country.
Acting Police Commissioner McDonald Jacob said Kendall is at the TTPS Central Intelligence Bureau assisting the police in their prosecution and conviction of offenders.
Speaking at a reception to celebrate the launch of the Gang Reduction and Empowerment Project (Project GRACE) at the Marriott, Port of Spain, on Wednesday, the top cop admitted that there are challenges in achieving the “evidential threshold” required to prosecute gang members.
He said there are an estimated 134 gangs in T&T consisting of six main gangs.
These gangs, he said, are suspected to also be involved in illegal quarrying, drug trafficking, robberies, extortion, land grabbing, sales of illegal guns, human trafficking and larceny of motor vehicles.
Jacob said analysis has shown that 60 per cent of the murders in T&T are gang-related and about 80 per cent of the shootings and wounding are also gang-related.
He also expressed concern about the influx of high-powered weapons as he noted that, for the year 2022 so far, the TTPS has seized 482 firearms of which 72 are high-powered.
Compared to last year, 61 high-powered weapons were seized.
The Commissioner said so far 644 young men have been charged with various firearm offences and it is well known that several of these persons are gang members who are granted bail.
“Even though the investigators in the TTPS are in fact aware that these young men are involved in gangs and carrying out gang activities, on several occasions they are unable to reach the evidential threshold required to charge these persons for actually being involved in gangs according to the legislation,” he said.
He said for the past few years the TTPS was able to charge 81 offenders for actual gang-related offences.
The GRACE programme, he said, can assist investigators in developing the evidential standard that is required by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) office enabling the investigators to charge these offenders under the gang law.
The Commissioner said, internationally, gang-related crimes are the most difficult to prosecute than other categories of crimes.
He added that there is a need for “gang experts” to provide testimony for the jury to understand the complex nature of gangs in order to achieve a successful prosecution.
Jacob noted the two-fold aspect of the GRACE programme — training and providing expertise to the Police Service and working with the young people in the challenged communities and influencing them with positive change.
