Senior TTPS leadership told a town hall that rural areas like Matūra and Toco can no longer assume safety as criminals adapt.

RALPH BAN-WARIE GML Cor-re-spon-dent Rur-al com-mu-ni-ties such as Matu-ra and To-co can no longer as-sume they are im-mune from crime be-cause crim-i-nals are adapt-ing and tar-get-ing vul-ner-a-ble coastal ar-eas, Se-nior Su-per-in-ten-dent has warned.. Speak-ing dur-ing a town meet-ing host-ed by the at Plaza Del Es-tate along the To-co Main Road on Thurs-day night, Pa-ponette said polic-ing strate-gies in the East-ern Di-vi-sion were chang-ing in re-sponse to evolv-ing crim-i-nal ac-tiv-i-ty.. “Not be-cause crime is spi-ralling out

of con-trol, not be-cause com-mu-ni-ties have col-lapsed, but be-cause Trinidad and To-ba-go is chang-ing.. Crim-i-nals are chang-ing, vi-o-lence is chang-ing and rur-al com-mu-ni-ties can no longer as-sume they are too re-mote, too qui-et or too peace-ful to be-come tar-gets.. That il-lu-sion is gone,” he said.. Pa-ponette said com-mu-ni-ties such as Matu-ra, Matelot, Grand Riv-iere and the north-east-ern cor-ri-dor were once viewed as iso-lat-ed from the prob-lems af-fect-ing ur-ban ar-eas, but crim-i-nals were now study-ing coastal

com-mu-ni-ties for op-por-tu-ni-ties.. “Crim-i-nals do not re-spect ge-og-ra-phy.. They study op-por-tu-ni-ties, they study move-ments, they study vul-ner-a-bil-i-ties, they study si-lence and in-creas-ing-ly they are study-ing coastal com-mu-ni-ties,” he said.. He said coast-lines pro-vid-ed move-ment, fish-ing de-pots pro-vid-ed cov-er, re-mote roads al-lowed con-ceal-ment, poor light-ing cre-at-ed anonymi-ty and sparse pop-u-la-tions re-duced the like-li-hood of wit-ness-es.. “And when com-mu-ni-ties be-come di-vid-ed or dis-en-gaged, crim-i-nals be-lieve they can qui-et-ly es-tab-lish in-flu-ence be-fore any-one no-tices,” he added.. Pa-ponette said

the East-ern Di-vi-sion had de-lib-er-ate-ly changed its op-er-a-tional phi-los-o-phy and was now fo-cused on pre-vent-ing crim-i-nal net-works from es-tab-lish-ing them-selves in rur-al com-mu-ni-ties.. “We are no longer polic-ing on-ly for what crime is, we are polic-ing for what crime can be-come,” he said.. Res-i-dents at-tend-ing the meet-ing raised con-cerns in-clud-ing prae-di-al lar-ce-ny, speed-ing ve-hi-cles, the lack of speed humps, il-le-gal quar-ry-ing and in-suf-fi-cient po-lice pa-trols.. De-spite the com-plaints, sev-er-al res-i-dents com-mend-ed Sgt Hazel and of-fi-cers

at-tached to the dis-trict for their work de-spite lim-it-ed re-sources.. Some res-i-dents de-scribed Hazel as the best sergeant they had ex-pe-ri-enced in Matu-ra.. Act-ing prin-ci-pal of Do-lores Richards al-so praised of-fi-cers for their in-ter-ven-tion at the school, say-ing dis-ci-pline among stu-dents had im-proved.. As-sis-tant Com-mis-sion-er said it was un-usu-al to hear a com-mu-ni-ty speak-ing pos-i-tive-ly about po-lice of-fi-cers.. “I was speak-ing with Snr Supt Pa-ponette a while ago about trans-fer-ring Sgt Hazel,” Singh joked.. Singh

al-so warned about the in-flu-ence of so-cial me-dia, gangs and mu-sic on young peo-ple, say-ing com-mu-ni-ties need-ed to play a greater role in shap-ing chil-dren’s be-hav-iour.. “You can-not want to smoke weed and tell your child not to do it.. You can-not cuss your neigh-bour and tell your child do not do it.. Chil-dren learn what they live,” he said.. He said schools, youth clubs and sta-tion coun-cils re-mained im-por-tant in pre-vent-ing crim-i-nal be-hav-iour be-fore

it es-ca-lat-ed.. Ad-dress-ing con-cerns about prae-di-al lar-ce-ny, Singh sug-gest-ed farm-ers work to-geth-er to pur-chase drones to mon-i-tor crops and as-sist po-lice in iden-ti-fy-ing thieves.. He al-so said in-for-ma-tion on le-gal firearms and cit-i-zen’s ar-rests would be ad-dressed dur-ing an-oth-er ses-sion.

TTPS, Eastern Division policing, rural crime warning, Matūra residents, coastal vulnerability, predial larceny, Sgt Hazel