Less than one per cent of the population is responsible for criminal activity and yet the fear of crime is escalating and gripping all of society.
Head of TTPS’ Central Division Michael Pierre, speaking at the police town meeting at the Felicity Hindu School on Wednesday night, said: “There aren’t any bandits in control of Trinidad, you know, none. What they have done is create the fear and what has been done is the amplification of the fear through many quarters, through our discussions, through the media, amplification of the fear,” Pierre said.
Pierre said T&T’s immigrant community is also contributing to crime and criminals are learning to be better at committing crime when they are in jail.
“We have reached the point where we are gripped by crime. We have a prison which is a community and there, in the prison, we have people from all different areas in T&T, serving time together, remanded together, learning about the different areas and then we get the importation of crime from those persons as well and then we have the opportunistic crime, those who drive around and look for the opportunity to see someone who is vulnerable and they rob.”
He said the population is now filled with Venezuelans, of whom little is known about their past.
“We have seen a great migration of Spanish-speaking nationals in T&T and I am certain in the Felicity area there are a lot,” he said.
He added: “And then we have again, the foreign nationals who are here, some of them renting from some of you. You don’t know their names, you have no ID card for them, no copy of a picture ID but you are renting them and you don’t know what type of life those individuals led in the country they came from. Then we see an upsurge of crime coming from that community as well and we say that the police may not be doing enough. And I agree that in some instances, that we can do more.”
Assistant Supt Ramdhanie Dipchand said there were individuals in the community who had knowledge of criminals but were refusing to give information to the police. He said the police are finding it difficult to get video footage from residents when crimes happen.
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