297 murders; Martin has full confidence in police chief

With the country's homicide rate heading for another record high, National Security Minister Martin Joseph told the media Thursday he has full confidence in acting Police Commissioner James Philbert.

Police statistics show that by July 15, there were 297 homicides in the country. That's an increase of 6.83 per cent over the 278 homicides that occurred between January 1 to July 15, last year.

At that rate it seems to be heading to at least 600 by the end of the year but the minister said he has no difficulty with the way in which Police is doing his job.

In fact Joseph said things are looking up, noting that the detection rate is improving under Philbert's watch. "It's ticking up a little bit and, notice I say ticking up, because to date the detection rate is about 20 per cent compared to about 16 or 17 per cent for a similar period last year," Joseph said.

He also declared that in his view Philbert would do well in a performance review. "The Police Service Commission is mandated by law now to review the performance of the Commissioner of Police. I am not aware of they having any difficulties with the way in which the current Commissioner of Police is discharging his responsibilities."

The minister also disclosed that cabinet has received a report from Canadian consultant, Cameron Ross, and that the document has reviewed the "entire national security architecture".

Commenting on his own performance on the job Joseph said said he is feeling intense pressure from the escalating murder rate, adding that criticism from the opposition , civil society and many victims of crime doesn't make it any easier.

He painted himself as a victim. "...a future Minister of National Security will not have to be subjected to the kind of pressure that this current Minister is subjected to and I recognise that, you see, because we are building the systems," Joseph said.

Despite the pressure Joseph was upbeat about fighting crime, stating, "we are still convinced that we will win this war". He didn't say how that would be accomplished but reminded reporters of the prime minister's formula for crime busting.

"We are putting every effort to bring that under control and if we will try 'A' and if that doesn't work we will try 'B' and if 'B' doesn't work we try 'C'. We will fight it relentlessly until at the end of it all we have it under control."

He suggested that there is too much criticism and insisted that he would not blame police for the problem. In fact he told reporters the number of serious crimes (excluding homicides) has dropped but offered no details to support his claim.