As Trinidad and Tobago’s murder toll continues to climb, surpassing the 500 milestone last weekend, the National Security Council met on Monday, to discuss its plan for tackling crime for the remainder of the year and beyond. 

T&T’s murder toll is currently at 508. 

Monday’s meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley. 

Back in July, while commenting upward trend of murders and other violent crimes, Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley said that he believed the time had come for crime to be looked at through the lens of public health. 

“It is the government’s intention to declare violent crime as a public health issue because violence across the society is now the norm from domestic violence, violence in schools, violence of persons against persons, armed responses for everything, and of course the gains to be had by criminal conduct where lives are lost and property being destroyed and stolen and so on. It is a whole plethora of violent, unacceptable conduct,” the PM said during a press briefing at the Diplomatic Centre in St. Anns. 

Kamla: “Nothing New” 

A pappy show. That’s how Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar describes Monday’s meeting of the National Security Council, as she slammed the government for dropping the ball on its response to crime. 

“They come to make you feel they working when there was no response from them in the weeks before,” the UNC leader said at the party’s Monday Night Forum. 

The Opposition UNC has proposed a new approach to crime fighting, specifically splitting the Ministry of National Security into two separate entities. 

One arm, it said, would deal with internal affairs and intelligence gathering, while the second will focus on  border protection, and problems encountered with the illegal entry of weapons, drugs,  and human trafficking.