IN COLLABORATION WITH the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Caribbean Community Secretariat has developed a draft Action Plan For Social Development And Crime Prevention that could be helpful for all member states plus Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
With a view to securing as much feedback as possible from stakeholders across the region, the CARICOM Secretariat has organised a series of three major consultations, in co-operation with UNODC, to facilitate participation by representatives of governments, the private sector and civil society.
The first of the series of consultations was due to take place last Wednesday and Thursday, with Trinidad and Tobago as the venue.The second is scheduled to occur over two days in Jamaica, starting tomorrow, to be followed by the third final in St Kitts and Nevis.
Until the announcement of these consultations, there has been a surprising lack of prior official information to sensitise the public either on the drafting of the proposed “crime prevention plan”, or the arrangements for the three scheduled events.
Spiraling criminality remains a most distressing problem across the Caribbean region. It is, therefore, encouraging to know that arrangements have been made to discuss the draft anti-crime plan with stakeholders before its introduction becomes a fait accompli.
However, even at this stage, it is relevant to enquire about the extent of involvement by criminologists, sociologists and other experts in the employ of governments, in addition to independent security and development specialists attached to regional and international institutions in shaping the “draft plan”.
In the absence of any reporting out of Port-of-Spain, there is no official indication about the success, or otherwise, of the scheduled consultation organised for regional stakeholders in Trinidad and Tobago.
Traditionally, the Prime Minister of that community partner state holds lead responsibility among CARICOM Heads for “crime and security”.
But the country’s own challenges as one of the Caribbean’s major centres for crime and violence, has been rather unflattering in the quest for creative ideas on coordinated regional responses
In the new political dispensation, the People’s Partnership Government (PPG) of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has just recently taken the drastic step of firing Brigadier Peter Joseph as director of what’s popularly known as SAUTT, the once controversial Trinidad and Tobago Anti-Crime Unit, now to be restructured and re-directed.
It would be interesting to learn of the involvement, if any, by the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police (ACCP) in the shaping of the CARICOM/UNDOC “draft crime prevention plan”, as well as the relationship between the ACCP and SAUTT.
