Criminologists, former Attorney General

Senior reporter

As the country continues to struggle with rising crime, criminologists and a former attorney general say a state of emergency is not the answer.

People from different quarters have called for a SoE because there are multiple murders happening daily which are making citizens very worried. The murder toll till yesterday was 433.

Instead, they call for better policing to increase the number of crimes detected and to improve the justice system.

Criminologist Dr Randy Seepersad said in an interview with Guardian Media yesterday that the public may be gravitating towards an SoE, but it does nothing to solve the underlying problem.

“It’s a stopgap measure. It’s very similar to, if you remember, during COVID-19, when we had restrictions in place, and those restrictions resulted in a wide range of crimes. But it’s not a practical solution, because essentially you’re locking people in their homes, right? But that’s not a solution. It’s not creative. You know, it lacks creativity, and it’s just not enough. It’s almost, I would say, an act of desperation when you declare a state of emergency,” he explained.

Former Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, SC, also agreed that an SoE is only a temporary measure and would not be effective.

“It would not solve the problem, and solving the problem means that there has to be an investigation of the people who commit the crime. The public and the potential criminals have to know that if they commit the crime, they will be caught, and I think one of the biggest problems that T&T has is that the detection rate of murders is very low. If you have to have an aggressive crime control policy, you have to be able to catch the perpetrators,” Maharaj said.

He noted that the most important deterrent when he was in office was catching criminals and punishing them for their actions, which he said should be a top priority to help in the fight against crime.

Another criminologist, Daurius Figueira, said the repeated calls for emergency measures are born of desperation, but they say nothing about the reality that fuels the violence: there is no emergency.

“It is a societal collapse caused by the failure of the political system to integrate all citizens into the social order and to do what is necessary to protect public safety.

“A SoE is used on the basis of the expectation that the social order is viable, healthy and in harmony, but is facing an emergency that requires intervention. The social order of T&T is none of the above, and a SoE cannot make our social order viable; that is the job of the political system,” he said.

“The collapse of this system is then indicated by the inability of politicians and the national security apparatus to speak to us now, to assure us that there is hope. Their discourse to the public cannot even resonate with the daily reality of the graphic reckless violence that attacks us and leaves many of us living in fear and paranoia,” Figueira added.

He said the TTPS never talks about transnational organised crime, how it affects the social order of T&T and how they plan to tackle this serious threat.

Seepersad also said that tackling youth who engage in crime, the courts and prison are some of the key issues that need to be addressed.

He explained that police homicide detection rates are low because fewer offenders are being caught. “You need to understand why that is happening. Is it something to do with people’s lack of trust in the police, people’s reluctance to report? Is it something to do with the inappropriate use of technology or intelligence? There are many factors that affect detection rates. So you need to look at a proper gap analysis of the police service to see what is happening and then put measures in place to improve detection rates,” Seepersad outlined.

Mtima Solwazi, founder of the ROOTS Foundation, disagrees with the calls for a state of emergency. He does not believe it will work now, because it was not effective in 2015.

“That might be more regressive than progressive. I don’t think that will work.” However, Solwazi suggests that a gun amnesty could help address the crime situation.

“We’re asking the gangs if they can bring their guns. I don’t know what they can come up with. We can look at what best practices work with our gun amnesty. Because if they tell me to bring my gun, they shouldn’t lock up the gang member. But if they take all the guns and they say, take 5,000 guns off the streets, let’s see if you all take a steamroller and melt those guns down. But if you only mention the guns in the police stations, that’s not solving the problem; they need to be destroyed,” he said.

Solwazi called on the government and the opposition to put aside their differences and join the fight against crime.

When contacted, Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal said the opposition has been helping the government pass laws but the crisis stems from lack of implementation.

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