As part of their efforts to achieve a drop in the murder rate by June, senior police have confirmed that several new crime-fighting strategies would be launched to supplement existing initiatives.

Responding to questions during a Joint Select Committee (JSC) sitting at Cabildo Chambers, Port of Spain, on Monday, Police Commissioner Erla Christopher said she anticipated a short-term change in the murder toll by June and a long-term change by December.

She admitted that the detection rate for the police was 13 per cent.

As of Tuesday afternoon, there have been 104 murders for the year compared to 92 for the same period last year.

Contacted for comment on Tuesday, a senior officer said different units of the police took the challenge seriously and have began meetings to discuss plans on how to curb murders in different communities.

"The motive behind the majority of homicides we're seeing is gang-related, so part of the strategy would be to address gang and gang activities. This means we're strengthening the gang intelligence unit and the intelligence community in general.

"We'll be using key pieces of legislation to assist us but we don't want to publicise it too much.

"As far as a deterrent is concerned we're looking at uniformed police presence and visibility in the first instance and plain clothes detectives for detection purposes in the event of murders that have already happened."

He added that traditional police operations like road blocks and house searches would also be used to target criminals.

"We're looking at traditional targeted strikes at known priority offenders, regular raids and searches.

"We know the gun is the weapon of choice and guns are moved around in vehicles so we're intensifying operations on the roadways, a lot of stop-and-search exercises - both scheduled and improptu - will be done. So it will lead to some inconvenience to the public, but it's necessary."

The officer said that, in addition to preventing murders from happening, several new policies would also be rolled out to assist police prosecutors in case management when suspects are charged and appear before court.

"We're looking to strengthen the prosecution which is the way to ensure those who are charged remain off the streets.

"We are reviewing the role of the legal officer to use them more strategically in the courts to assist us in presenting our case before the courts."

Referring to Christopher's promise to also root out corrupt police officers, the officer said the Professional Standards Bureau (PSB) would also be enhanced to thoroughly investigate allegations of misconduct.

He said these efforts would also work in tandem with community-based policing through the Gang-Reduction and Community Enhancement (GRACE) project which was launched last year and endorsed by former police commissioner McDonald Jacob.

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