TT COPS VERY UNRELIABLE

TT COPS VERY UNRELIABLE
by NEWSDAY REPORTERS Sunday, November 8 2015



JUSTIN KERSEY, Regional Manager (the Americas) of international risk management firm iJET, in a recent interview with internet tourist destination website Yahoo Travel, declared the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service to be “very unreliable”, amid a backdrop of a major crime problem plaguing this country.

Kersey gave the damning indictment in an interview with Yahoo Travel reporter Sid Lipsey for an article titled, “Yahoo Travel queries tourist safety in Caribbean.” The article was featured last week in the Caribbean360 website.

The article highlighted country by country, the most dangerous destinations in the Caribbean for tourists — with Trinidad and Tobago being first highlighted — and the safest countries for tourists to visit. The recent spate of security advisories and crime warnings for persons travelling to various Caribbean islands, the article stated, has some potential visitors rethinking their plans and asking, “Is the Caribbean safe?” Yahoo Travel’s Lipsey, pointed to “an eyebrow-raising number of crime warnings”, the latest of which saw the Canadian government update its security advisory for citizens travelling to Barbados.

This advisory is the latest in a rash of recent headlines highlighting concerns about crime in the region. In September, a Nassau newspaper reported that Carnival Cruise Lines was considering issuing crime warnings to passengers travelling to the Bahamas. And a Saint Lucia vendors’ association official accused local leaders of ignoring the island’s crime problem.

Then last month, English-born attorney Richard Wheeler, 72, and his Trinidad-born wife Grace, 67, were hacked to death at their Carnbee, Tobago home. Two men, a Tobagonian and a Vincentian have since been charged for the Wheelers’ murder. Earlier this month, an elderly American couple said they are being forced to flee their retirement home in Los Iros, south Trinidad after being attacked by armed bandits and also facing threats and racist abuse from locals, some of whom called the couple, “white devils”.

The US Embassy in Marli Street, Port-of-Spain, has advised the couple Barbara and Stanley Post, to move to the northern part of Trinidad until they are ready to fly back to the United States.

“Generally speaking, we have seen a slight increase in crime across the region,” Kersey told Yahoo Travel. “From Barbados to Trinidad to the Dominican Republic, we have seen a little bit of an uptick.” He said that the crime increase stemmed from a regional economic downturn. He noted that visitors tended to be safe as long as they stayed in the tourist areas, which he said tended to be well patrolled by police.

Yahoo indicated that while the vast majority of tourists had trouble- free vacations in the Caribbean, some of the destinations warranted more concern than others.

It then listed “trouble” islands as being, “most worrisome Caribbean destinations”, with Trinidad and Tobago being the first highlighted, although the article said the list was in no particular order.

TT crime levels ‘critical’ According to Kersey: “Trinidad and Tobago has a particular problem with security services.

The police are very unreliable.” The Yahoo Travel article also highlighted the US State Department’s Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) rating of Trinidad and Tobago’s crime situation as being, ‘critical’.

“American citizens have been victims of pickpocketing, assault, theft/robbery, fraud and murder,” reads OSAC’s safety report on Trinidad and Tobago. It cites theft from hotel rooms and the occasional daylight robberies.

“There is no evidence to indicate that foreigners, specifically expatriates, are targeted in particular,” reads the OSAC report, “but crimes — robbery, break-ins/burglary, vehicular break-ins, home invasions, and assaults (including sexual assaults) – do occur in areas frequented by tourists and in which the expatriate community lives.” In a disturbing postscript, the OSAC report added: “The use of incapacitating drugs is not uncommon in thefts and other crimes.” Other trouble countries included Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Puerto Rico and The Bahamas, the latter being the Caribbean destination with the highest reports of rape against tourists.

Kersey went on to list his picks of some of the low-crime spots in the Caribbean: The Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, St Martin— St Maarten, Aruba, and Turks and Caicos.

DILLON: What is Kersey’s justification? Contacted for comment on Kersey’s damning take on the TT Police Service’s reliability or lack thereof, National Security Minister Edmund Dillon asked against what background was Kersey making such a broad assessment of the police service. “Is it a personal experience he has had that has caused him to say this? What is his justification?” Minister Dillon asked.

“Because of reports of break ins and assaults and robberies...

the Wheelers? Is it because of the Wheelers he is saying the TT police are unreliable? He can’t make a statement that because the Wheelers were murdered, our police force is unreliable. We are all saddened by the murder of the Wheelers. If the Police Service was unreliable how then could they have apprehended people connected to those murders so very quickly? I can’t see a reliable match to that statement.

How many break in do we have involving foreigners compared to locals? The police are outside there and they are doing their job, Minister Dillon said, adding that they have been in operations throughout the country.

“We have increased the police presence on the roads with our joint army and police patrols. We have stepped up the ante a bit to have the presence act as a deterrent and that is what we have to do in terms of being proactive since we cannot go into somebody’s mind to know that they will commit a crime. The deterrent is the most important thing.

“The police alone cannot fight crime, citizens’ involvement is also necessary. The police are in fact the tail end of the criminal mind. When the criminal is about to commit or has committed a crime, the police come into play.

What we are trying to do is start it from before and try to get the individuals to programme themselves even before they think about committing a crime. It means there must be interventions along the spectrum be it from family, the Church, the temple and mosque and the schools,” Dillon said.

Acting Commissioner of Police (CoP) Stephen Williams was in no way impressed with Kersey’s assessment of the force he (Williams) leads. “I could give you an entire interview about the TT Police Service and all that we have been doing. Crime against tourists, all the information that you could want in relation to the relevant article.

“I would not give you a one-off comment on any matter because it would never represent the entire Police Service. I have not read the story you are referring to.

“Anybody could say the TT Police Service is the greatest thing in the world or they could say it is the worst thing in the nation. We press on with our job and we remain committed as a law enforcement service.

“So to ask me to comment...I have to check the story to see what it is about first,” Commissioner Williams said.