PM urges citizens to help reduce crime

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is urg­ing cit­i­zens to play a greater role in re­duc­ing crime, say­ing pub­lic safe­ty is a shared re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and not sole­ly the job of the coun­try's law en­force­ment agen­cies.

In a Face­book post, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said re­duc­ing crime "is not on­ly the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of our po­lice and se­cu­ri­ty forces. It is the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of every one of us."

While not­ing that gang-re­lat­ed mur­ders con­tin­ue to de­cline, the Prime Min­is­ter said too many peo­ple are still los­ing their lives be­cause of anger, re­venge and do­mes­tic dis­putes.

She ap­pealed to cit­i­zens to ex­er­cise re­straint dur­ing con­flicts, say­ing that choos­ing to walk away from a con­fronta­tion could pre­vent tragedy.

"Some­times the bravest de­ci­sion is to walk away. A mo­ment of re­straint can save a life­time of re­gret," Per­sad-Bisses­sar wrote.

The Prime Min­is­ter end­ed her mes­sage with an ap­peal for com­pas­sion and non-vi­o­lence, urg­ing cit­i­zens to "let love have the last word."

Her com­ments come days af­ter she an­nounced 30 joint army and po­lice posts will be es­tab­lished across Trinidad.