T&T's top cop says gang culture defeats justice

Trinidad and Tobago's acting Police Commissioner (CoP) told the Sunday's Guardian's Clevon Raphael that the chairman of Police Service Commission Christopher Thomas did not express concerns about the CoP's performance as reported last week in the Guardian.

And James Philbert said there never was any question of "threats" from Thomas, noting that he felt the newspaper "took a certain slant" in reporting the story. He also denied that he had any deadline to produce a plan on how he intends to reduce the crime rate.

Pressed about the matter, Philbert told Raphael there has always been a plan.

"When I joined the service 43 years ago, there was a plan; what happens is that you have to keep changing that plan, because you are being fed by intelligence and there is no new plan," he said.

Philbert also gave Raphael a lesson on policing. "Police for me is on the streets. You need to mentor; you need to supervise; you need to manage it out there, and you need to get in touch with the public and get in touch with what is going on. There is a lot of paper work to do, but I would not like to miss the action outside."

And in response to a question about the high crime rate Philbert had this to say:

"If you understand what are the causes of homicides, the mere presence of the Commissioner and his personnel on the streets would not affect the homicide figure. That has to do with gang activity, and if you understand the gang culture...how they operate, is like warring factions. But strangely enough, we have contributed to a reduction in gangland activities."

Raphael wanted to know why police cannot just arrest gang members. Philbert responded by asking his own questions.

"First, perhaps you should ask how many of them have been held; how many of them are out on bail; how many have been convicted. That is what you need to know, I do not have those figures at my fingertips, but you also need to understand our gang culture to understand why they are still outside."

However he did not provide an explanation to support his position. When asked, "Why are they still outside?" Philbert was vague.

"For various reasons, and as I said, gangs are warring factions who do various things, but they come together to defeat justice" but keeping their wars and murders to themselves and out of the courts. This applies even to murder, he said.

He said one way to deal with gang problems is to find out why young people continue to join gangs. He didn't offer any solutions but suggested that it has to do to with a breakdown of institutions such as the family and the schools.

"I could tell you where my daughter is, but in so many other instances where families are broken up, some parents do not really know where their children are," the commissioner said.

He said times have changed since he grew up in a single-parent home.
He dismissed Raphael's suggestion that the the murder rate is so high because killers know they can get way with it.

And he rejected the idea that the high crime rate is an indictment against the Police Service.

"No. I don’t think so, and in a way you are pointing at the investigative factor and what does that rely on? People. And we have now moved strongly to the scientific part—DNA. But DNA is not magic, so both are extremely important," he said.

He said he shares the confidence of the national security minister that the homicide figure for 2009 (now at 398) would be lower than the previous year's high of 550.

"We were seeing a drop before that horrendous weekend with 12 killings; we were 12 behind the figure for the corresponding period last year. Today, I think we may be on par or even behind on last year’s number," he said.

He concluded the interview by saying he believes the Police service needs to have more technical resources to deal with crime.

Read the full interview