Minister of National Security discusses crime rate
Earlier in the newscast, we told you about the passage of a bill to allow for witnesses statements to be admitted in court. It is intended that the legislation will secure convictions to reduce the horrifying levels of crime. On Thursday, News Five sat down with the Minister of National Security, Carlos Perdomo to get his views. We don’t know where the minister gets his stats that crime is down, because the official stats from his police show the opposite. Here is what he had to say.
Carlos Perdomo, Minister of National Security
“Before September we were doing really well. As you know, presently, even though the nature and types of murders, shooting with kids around and like that has again frightened us, murders on a whole from January to September are down by six or seven. So we’re doing much better.”
Marion Ali
“They’re right on par?”
Carlos Perdomo
“No we’re not on par, we’re below.”
Marion Ali
“There are out there who will say you’re not doing enough.”
Carlos Perdomo
“Well, I can’t say anything to that but that is not exactly true.”
Marion Ali
“When you look at the rate of everything that has…”
Carlos Perdomo
“No, no, murders are down, sexual crimes are down, the difficulty we’re having…”
Marion Ali
“According to our count though Minister…”
Carlos Perdomo
“Well you better check your count because we won’t falsify anything.”
Marion Ali
“It’s on par from January to October.”
Carlos Perdomo
“Well, I’m talking about end of September we are like six or seven less. October just started this week. We’re at about three but remember last October it was about eight so we’re not that far off.”
Marion Ali
“We’re still leading in the region though.”
Carlos Perdomo
“Well, I read something that they say we’re the murder capital. We are very high but I don’t think we are number one.”
When we checked our own records, the count murder count was at seventy-nine as of October eighth. Comparatively, it stood at three more than it did on the same date last year.
So how will this government, which campaigned on the platform to fix the crime problem with a whole different approach, deal with this critical issue? Well, Perdomo says his Police Department can’t do it alone, nor can his government fix it in a five-year term. But, he says they have already begun to implement some of the recommendations of the Crooks Report.
Carlos Perdomo, Minister of National Security
“One of the very significant first steps was to have the Crooks Report which was released last November. And that is a very stinging, very open, very clear critique of some of the big weaknesses within the Police Force.”
Marion Ali
“And what are we doing to address those weaknesses?”
Carlos Perdomo
“We changed Commissioners for one, so that’s a new element.”
Marion Ali
“But it’s under Mr. Jeffries that these crimes are happening, the heinous murders, slitting of throats.”
Carlos Perdomo
“Well, you have to give me time to tell you what else, that’s not the only thing. We have given more supervisory powers to the new Assistant Commissioners of Police.”
Marion Ali
“The manifesto of your party, on which you campaigned, was that you’d work towards a three hundred and sixty degree approach to addressing crime. But there are some people out there who might say crime get worse.”
Carlos Perdomo
“Well, the perception is that there is justification to say that but you have to remember that we’ve only been in government for a year and a half. Even teachers today are afraid of the type of kids that are in their classrooms. That tells you about a serious social degradation of family, of discipline. So it will take as many years, Marion, to solve this crime problem, and it’s not just a political issue. The solution to crime is going to take several other governments. Hopefully, the U.D.P.’ will be the next one so we can have ten years of the proper follow-up.”
Perdomo says that in the next few weeks the Department will introduce a Police Policy Board that will be tasked to take a closer look at how to tackle the crime situation.
