Williams: 36% drop in serious crimes

A THIRTY-SIX per cent reduction in serious crimes has been recorded for the first four months of 2013 as compared to the same period for last year, acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams said yesterday.

Williams made the statement yesterday during a Joint Select Committee (JSC) meeting to enquire into the administration and operations of the Ministry of National Security with special interest on efforts at maintaining law and order.

The JSC meeting was held yesterday at the J Hamilton Maurice Room, Tower D of the International Waterfront Centre in Port of Spain.

While serious crimes on a whole have decreased by 36 per cent for the first four months of the year as compared to last year, there are two more homicides recorded for the period in question.

For the first four months of last year, 38, 23, 29 and 34 murders were recorded consecutively according to statistics provided by the Crime and Problem Analysis Branch (CAPA) on the TTPS website.

A total of 124 murders were committed for the first four months of 2012.

For this year, the comparative statics read 38, 46, 19 and 19, for a total of 122 murders, Williams said yesterday.

March and April recorded the lowest number of murders in a single month, with 19, for the last six years not including the three months of the State of Emergency in 2011, Williams said.

While serious crimes have been reduced by 36 per cent, the country’s detection rate is languishing at ten per cent, Opposition Member of Parliament Alicia Hospedales said yesterday.

Williams said by the end of the year the detection rate should increase.

“Murders take extensive investigation to be detected. A murder may not be solved at the instant that the offence was committed it may be solved over a period of some time more than even a year,” Williams said.

“If at early May the detection rate is low at ten per cent as you (Hospedales) highlight, if we look at December 31 (2013) we expect as we progress the year, the detection rate will increase over the issue of murders, that is our perspective. Right now as we speak there are persons who are detained and it is likely two or three murders at the end of this week will be solved,” Williams said.

Express