Port-of-Spain Municipal cops relaunch Safe City initiative for Christmas

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Carisa Lee

Even in the midst of a pandemic, it is expected that more people will visit the city of Port-of-Spain for the Christmas season.

So to prepare for that, the Port- of- Spain Municipal Police re-launched its Safe City initiative on Wednesday.

“You see this was not just an initiative that started today…We have been working tirelessly for months,” Constable Jamal Bennette said.

At the Council’s Chamber at City Hall, Port-of-Spain, Bennette said the plan which started in 2020, will see an increase in patrols by 56 per cent during this period.

“We are committed to ensuring that the city is properly policed,” he said.

Bennette said the plan was crafted with research and statistics and the decrease of minor and serious crimes in Port- of- Spain is a result of effective visibility.

“We have created a Christmas village in the central business district and we will be segmenting that into various zones, zones one to four which will encompass various streets and certain personnel will be present with uniform and plain clothes officers,” he said.

National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds described the plan as beautiful but said it takes much more than bullet points to follow. He said it takes dedication. “You can’t do that malingering, taking sick leave at precisely the time when the people who we swore and pierce to serve need us,” he said.

The minister told the room of municipal police to stay focused and on the vision and get the business done.

“We can’t do that if we are complicit in some of the anti-social and sometimes and even illegal behaviours that we see,” he added.

Deputy Police Commissioner McDonald Jacob said the collaborative plan will see the city is also divided into mobile and foot patrol zones where each entity will be given particular areas of responsibility.

“The Municipal Police, the Transit Police, the Traffic Wardens and even some security companies and Licensing Officers will play their part,” he said.

Jacob said most of the mobile patrol vehicles, fitted with GPS, will be monitored by the operational centre.

Hinds, along with the mayor Joel Martinez, Rural Community Minister Kazim Hosein and other officials walked the City and handed out flyers outlining the Safe City plan.

But with all this interaction and COVID-19 cases on the rise Hinds also encouraged the Municipal police officers to get vaccinated. He said from a personal experience vaccines work.

“Because I am sure at least on two occasions they told me I had contact with persons who were COVID positive and I felt some effects on my body as I quarantined but it did not send me to the ICU, it did not send me to the hospital, it did not send me on a respiratory machine and it did not send me to my grave,” he said.

In October 2021 Municipal Police officer Cpl Nyron Allen died from COVID-19.