Anti Crime Initiatives

EXTRACT OF ANTI CRIME INITIATIVES AS OUTLINED IN OPPOSITION LEADER’S BUDGET SPEECH

1. IMMEDIATELY IMPLEMENTABLE INITIATIVES TO REDUCE CRIME

• A few immediately implementable initiatives to reduce crime.
• Strengthen a rebranded highway patrol unit.
• Properly staff the E999 call centre. Currently, it’s severely understaffed 12 persons are supposed to be on the switchboard daily, but there are usually less than 3, so citizens are forced to wait for over 45 minutes at times, and no one answers. Imagine, this is for emergency reports of criminal activity!
• Reactivate the community comfort patrols.
• Increase and maintain CCTV cameras throughout Trinidad and Tobago. 
• Properly support the Transnational Organized Crime Unit. It is poorly utilized and understaffed now, so there are few results. Nobody hears about this unit anymore as the Government failed to equip or utilize it properly.
• Increase Covert operations at the seaports and airports.
• Enhance and fully reimplement The National Operations Centre.
• Install Security Electronic Billboards.
• Immediately provide electronic data access in all Police vehicles.
• Integrate a fully Computerized crime statistics and reporting [COMPSTAT] system to include:

1. Computerized vehicle maintenance and service records.

1. Computerization of all Police stations and provision of internet access via NOC data.

1. Equipping every Police vehicle with GPS and link via NOC.

• Indoor and outdoor shooting ranges for all the protective services.
• A training swimming pool facility to train all arms of the protective services, police, fire, coast guard, and army.
• A simulation training theatre for TTPS.
• Proper health and fitness facilities for the TTPS.
• Provide Customer Service and Public Relations support for the TTPS.
• Standardize and acquire fit-for-purpose vehicles for the TTPS.

1. A SHORT LIST OF SOME UNC NATIONAL SECURITY PLANS FOR ADDRESSING THE CRIME CRISIS.

1. Stand your ground laws. If the Government cannot protect the people, it should give the people the laws and means to protect themselves.

1. Creation of the offence of home invasions.

1. Allowance for the right to bear arms or modifications to the current legislation to make acquiring firearms by law-abiding citizens easier.

1. Changing legislation to make gating communities easier.

1. Increasing the complement of municipal police.

1. Introducing Police officers full-time in all schools.

1. Restructuring of the ministry of national security.

• Ministry of Home Affairs.
• Ministry of Defence.
• Ministry of Justice.

1. An increase in retirement age for the Trinidad and Tobago defence force to align it with other arms of the protective services.

1. Diploma, undergraduate, and postgraduate degrees in policing for recruits combined with a police apprenticeship program.

1. 10. Pre-trial detention and bail reform.

1. 11. Individual risk and financial assessments.

1. 12. Minimum security detention centres.
2. 13. Law to prevent incarceration of non-violent drug offenders (addicts).

1. 14. Ankle bracelets and house arrest.

1. 15. State support for children of incarcerated persons.

1. 16. A fund for children who have lost one or both parents to crime.

1. 17. Revamping of the witness protection program.

1. 18. Construction of a forensic science complex and training facility at the UWI Debe campus.

1. 19. Provide personal licensed firearms to all active TTPS officers and prison officers.

1. 20. Enforcement of the drug and liquor laws about minors.

1. 21. Enforce a zero-tolerance approach to any physical violence in schools. Any student physically attacking another student must be immediately removed from school and only be allowed to return after completing neuro-diagnostic testing and a proper counselling program approved by the state. In the interim, the student can keep up with their lessons via virtual learning. What we see in schools is more than bullying, we are seeing violent crimes being committed and the emergence of gang culture.

1. 22. Review the legislation for the allowance of marijuana use. There is an exponential increase in marijuana usage and addiction among teens and young adults. Due tothe absence of state agency oversight and control of supply, users are smoking marijuana laced with cocaine illegally imported. My government gave this country’s youth laptops to learn, this Government gave them marijuana.

1. 23. Install a task force to address the imminent arrival and use of fentanyl. It is coming if not already here.

1. 24. Review legislation to enable citizens to hire private attorneys representing their interests at hearings for party and bar licenses. The current system is corrupted.

1. 25. Legislation for mandatory cut-off time for all public events requiring a dancehall license not held within an enclosed building. Exceptions to be made during the carnival season.

1. 26. Carry out a performance assessment of social projects in National Security.

1. 27. Restructure social programmes that have become gang and criminal activity havens.

1. 28. Perform a short-term assessment to identify the scale of involvement of illegal immigrants in criminal activity so a comprehensive plan can be developed from this data.

1. PREVENTATIVE CRIME MEASURES TARGETED AT CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS.

• There are many social and educational programmes that exist to help empower youth to reach their fullest potential and guide them away from crime, namely:

1. The Higher Education Loan Programme

1. The MIC craft programmes

1. Helping Youth Prepare for Employment, commonly known as HYPE

1. The Multi-Sector Skills Training Programme, commonly known as MuST

1. On-the- Job Training Programme, OJT

1. Servol Hi-Tech and Advanced Skills Training Programme

1. The retraining programme for displaced workers
2. The Military-Led Youth Programme of Apprenticeship and Reorientation Training

1. YTEPP; Metal Industries Company Limited

1. 10.National Skills Development Programme and the Youth Academy Training.

I strongly recommend increasing the financing and monitoring of these programs to keep our young people occupied, educated, and away from gang life.

• All schools should have the full complement of required Deans of discipline, Security Officers, and Schools Safety Officers.

• We launched the first National Student Hotline (free talk) 800-4321 to provide professional counselling to students with confidentiality. What is the status of this? This should be reinforced.

• We established a Circle of Hope where students have a weekly special session to speak with trained teachers on issues they may have. Please reinforce this.

• Government must ensure staffing the full complement of student support services which constitutes guidance counsellors, guidance officers, and school social workers, with educational, behavioural, and clinical psychologists looking after our students in need.

• We implemented the RETIRESS ADOLESCENT PARTNERSHIP PROGRAMME (RAPP), a community-oriented programme that utilized the skills and experience of retired persons to aid and supervise low-school performers and out–of–school adolescents between the ages of 12 and 16. Please reinforce the RAPP.

• We implemented after-school homework and study centres, ‘Dial­a­Teacher’ programme, providing free help in Math and English Language for SEA students and Math, English, and Integrated Science for CSEC students at no cost to them or their parents – courtesy of the Ministry of Education and TSTT. What is the status?

• Introduce proper and continuous testing and Neuro-diagnostics of children to test for special needs.
• Fill out all teacher vacancies and strictly monitor teacher absenteeism.

• Introduce a financial incentive program for dedicated and high-performing teachers based on students’ end-of-term examination results across all levels.

• Introduce the anonymous anti-bullying app for students to make reports.

• Introduce parent patrols in all schools, where a parent of each enrolled student must spend at least one full day at their child’s school to maintain discipline with deans, teachers, and student support services.

• All students must undergo free, mandatory, annual physical and medical screening by state-approved public and private medical doctors to examine for physical abuse, substance abuse, sexual abuse, malnutrition, and diseases.

• After-school meals for children who apply to be supplied by the school feeding program. A daily multivitamin supplement should also be provided with meals. Malnutrition is a main cause of poor learning.

• We had a suite of Government Community Programmes. Some good programs are:

1. Community mediation services

1. Free Counselling sessions

1. Parental support groups for single parents and victims of family violence

1. Peer mediation

1. Parenting workshops to address parent-child conflict, parental rejection, parental communication, proper parental supervision, and identification of criminal behaviours in children

• Fund faith-based weekly community mentoring and guidance programs. Each community has a place of worship, which should be opened every day after school from 2.30 pm to 6.30 pm and on Saturdays and Sundays to act as community homework and activity centres.

• The Government must provide funding for meals and student supplies and pay a stipend to staff who can be drawn from the congregations, community elders, volunteer teachers, and parents. This way, we can integrate the parent, school, community, and religious bodies into children’s lives. It takes a village to raise a child.

• Through the Ministry of Local Government, all councillors should oversee the formation of a “community support council” in each PD of their electoral district. I suggest this manner as the boundaries are already delineated, and the demographic data is already present. These community support councils will act like the old ‘village councils’ to provide guidance, mentorship, and support to children, young adults, and parents, as well as serve as a direct link with the police and Government Representatives. Prominent persons of good character will administer the community support councils within the area. The aim is to integrate citizens better, prevent marginalization, and encourage communities to directly affect, monitor and regulate their development. These community councils should also be funded with a stipend from the Government.

1. OTHER DETAILED PLANS TO BE SHARED AT CONSULTATIONS

• We also have many other detailed plans, which we will share later during consultations with all willing stakeholders.