Acting Police Commissioner Mc Donald Jacob says he is impressed with the quality of CCTV cameras being used in Tobago as part of crime-fighting measures.

Speaking with reporters after the handing over of 12 electric bicycles to the Tourism Oriented Police Section (TOPS) at the Shirvan Road station on Monday, Jacob said the cameras on the island are “clear.”

“I can’t give the number, but I can tell you from our operational centre the last time I was here in November, I was able to see most of the main intersections and locations ranging from Crown Point straight to Scarborough. So, there were several points that we were able to see the footage and it was very, very, very much clear. I was really and truly surprised to see the sort of cameras that were installed in Tobago.”

In terms of vehicles assigned to the island, he said while there is sufficient, new vehicles will soon be added to what already exists.

“I want to give the population in Tobago some assurance that within the next few months there would be additional vehicles being allocated to Tobago to assist with the patrol grid that we are designing to ensure that the response time can improve tremendously.”

National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds said, based on an analysis done by the Strategic Services Agency (SSA), there are approximately 12,000 illegal firearms in TT.

“Some people estimate that it may even be more than that. So the focus has to be on these illegal weapons and what I am satisfied about is that the Police Commissioner, on behalf of the police organisation, has signaled that they understand how important that is and, as a result, Mr Jacob has announced a national intense, robust gun-retrieval exercise where the public can expect, based on, what the commissioner shared with me, some very targeted intelligence-driven focus exercises aimed at finding illegal guns.”

The use of guns, he said, represents about 87 per cent of the murders in the country.

“We are fully cognisant of that and taking action to deal with it.”

He said, at the same time there is also a focus on improving the country’s border management and controls.

“This is why you see us taking actions – getting new vessels and doing other things with a view of dealing with those.”