Gun amnesty?

(In January 2008 , the minister of national security said 86 gangs were operating in Trinidad and Tobago)

Acting Police Commissioner James Philbert told reporters Thursday he has been meeting with repentant gang members and pledged that police would defend them in the “strongest possible way.”

Philbert said police have established a hot line for use by gang members who want to turn around their lives. Anyone who is involved in a gang and needs help to get out can Deputy Police Commissioner Gilbert Reyes at 625-4923 or ACP Raymond Craig at 623-8440.

Speaking about his contact with gang members the top cop said his first meeting was held in a church in south Trinidad last Sunday and another was at his office at the Police Administration building on Wednesday.

"On Sunday we met at a church in south Trinidad with their respective pastors and yesterday, we met with 20 former members who have turned themselves over to the Lord and we are supporting this 100 per cent," Philbert said.

He said the two-hour meeting Wednesday involved about 20 former gang members and top officers, including acting Deputy Police Commissioners Gilbert Reyes and Maurice Piggott. He said those who attended the meeting gave the police "pertinent information".

"They are involved in church groups and we are supporting them 100 per cent...they have said certain things to us giving us a better insight of what we are dealing with,” Philbert said.

He didn't have much information about the people who met with the senior officers, was unable to give their age or other specifics, but he described them as "looking good" and noted that the gangs comprise young men and women.

The acting commissioner praised gang members for wanting to walk away from crime, adding that the ex-criminals are keen on embracing God.

"They wanted to get out because they got fed up," he told reporters adding that "they suddenly realised there is a God.”

Philbert also praised religious groups for encouraging gang members to abandon crime. "We must deal with this gang thing from various points...We are ready and willing to assist anybody who is a member of a gang and willing to drop out,” he said.

The police chief said there are pressures that the gang members face and the police are willing to assist and defend those who want make a change since the whole point of the exercise is to dismantle gangs.

"It is an illegal activity in the broadest sense of people coming together in a fairly organized fashion to take advantage of law-abiding and unsuspecting citizens,” Philbert said.

The police chief also called on other gang members to follow those who want to change and surrender their guns. But he said it's not an official amnesty. "I am not attributing this to mean there is a gun amnesty, it may look like it, but it is not so," Philbert said.

He said the gun initiative is only one of several police projects to deal with the "dismantling of gangs and their illegal activities".

Philbert commended pastors for their help in trying to get "young people back from the streets", finding jobs for them and changing the lives of youths who had been led astray.