Deosaran: Hinds must give answers on police manpower audit

3485616

SHARLENE RAMPERSAD

Criminologist Professor Ramesh Deosaran says National Security Minister, Fitzgerald Hinds, needs to answer questions about the status of the recommendations of the Police Service Manpower Audit. Deosaran spoke to Guardian Media after he donated 125 books to the NALIS library in Port of Spain on Tuesday.

Deosaran said there needs to be a study done to determine why the crime rate was increasing so rapidly despite the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There are three important issues to consider, not only with the recent spike in murders but the question of insecurity around the country and the public fear of crime. It is puzzling because it was initially thought that COVID-19 would have resulted in a decrease in crimes, especially serious crime, that hasn’t happened and we have done no particular study to find out why it was so,” Deosaran said.

He said the issue of the rising crime rate cannot be looked at by only examining statistics. Deosaran said since 1990, the country has gone from recording approximately 100 murders for the year, to recording more than 500 annually.

He said the country was in a much better place financially than it was in 1990 but that has not helped.

“ We have to look at the socio-economic, the social background of the people who commit crimes, we cannot just look at the end product, the statistics in order to get answer, so it is not just a matter of increasing the police force, it is certainly not a matter of making more laws, it is a matter of what is helping to contribute towards the crime,” Deosaran said.

He said over the years, many anti-crime plans have been submitted to successive governments, but those tend to up in the ‘political dustbin.’

“I think the public, the media should be asking what happened to the Police Manpower Audit that was completed by eight independent professionals in 2018? There were recommendations to help reduce crime, improve policing and increase the integrity and professional of the police service and also restructure the Police Service Commission.”

He said Hinds needs to account to the public.

“We cannot just jump up every Monday morning and make new announcements, that will just add to the public’s frustration.”

Deosaran was at NALIS to donate 125 of his books. He said his donation was done to provide the next generation with references of the past.

“That is for the next generation to look back, as you were saying as to what happened, too often we lose sight of what happened and we keep reinventing the wheel, whether its in health, education and especially in crime.”

Among the books donated were his first- “Williams: The Man, His Ideas and His Politics”, written shortly after the death of Dr Eric Williams in 1981. Other titles included- “Trial by Jury”, “The 1990 Muslimeen Insurrection”, “Education, Inequality and Crime”, “Psychonomics and Poverty” and his latest book- “Race, Politics and Democracy” which was written in 2021.

“This gift of books is an expression of love for my fellow citizens, who appear still striving to understand what political independence means.”