ACP Winston Maharaj says the police service has already achieved a reduction in serious crime.
Speaking during the T&T Police Service’s weekly media briefing at the Police Administration Building in Port-of-Spain yesterday, he also stated that the service is committed to meeting the timeline to reduce serious crime and murders set by Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher.
Maharaj claimed that they had already achieved a reduction in serious crimes, which includes murder, despite the fact that the murder count is already 154 for the year so far.
“We have a reduction actually in serious crimes in T&T, an 18 per cent reduction in serious crimes. Of course, the murder toll takes away from that figure so we are on our way to normalising the environment,” Maharaj said.
He added that all police officers are committed to the effort and “over time, we will see the result.”
“We hope that we can fulfil it. We gave a commitment. We are doing our part. Of course, the multiplicity of crimes being committed, very few, a negligible amount, is committed by police officers, our law enforcement. The majority is committed by the citizenry, so the police (service), in fact, is doing its part to prevent crimes and where they occur to arrest.”
Maharaj added: “The citizenry needs to be responsible, take responsibility for their actions, and where activity is taking place of a criminal nature, draw it to the attention of the police so that the intervention could be made,” he said.
“We are getting closer to June and giving our best effort to normalise and meet that timeline,” he added.
Maharaj said so far for the year, 190 firearms, including 23 high-powered rifles, and several thousand rounds of assorted ammunition have been recovered by police.
He added that while the murder count stood at 154, they had managed to detect 21 per cent of those crimes.
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