Western Division reports fewer murders, rise in kidnappings

Shane Su­perville

Head of the West­ern Di­vi­sion Snr Supt Sylvester Williams says the di­vi­sion has record­ed a re­duc­tion in sev­er­al cat­e­gories of crime this year, al­though kid­nap­pings, break-ins and fraud have in­creased.

Williams pro­vid­ed the sta­tis­tics dur­ing a po­lice me­dia brief­ing at the TTPS Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing on Sackville Street, Port of Spain, on Wednes­day.

He said Se­ri­ous Re­port­ed Crimes (SRCs) de­clined by 16 per cent be­tween Jan­u­ary 1 and June 8.

Ac­cord­ing to Williams, the di­vi­sion record­ed 17 mur­ders dur­ing the pe­ri­od un­der re­view, com­pared with 18 dur­ing the cor­re­spond­ing pe­ri­od last year.

Shoot­ings and wound­ings al­so fell by 25 per cent, with 15 in­ci­dents record­ed this year com­pared with 25 for the same pe­ri­od in 2025.

Sex­u­al of­fences de­clined sig­nif­i­cant­ly, drop­ping from 76 cas­es last year to 29 this year. Lar­ce­ny of mo­tor ve­hi­cles al­so de­creased by 25 per cent.

How­ev­er, Williams ac­knowl­edged in­creas­es in kid­nap­pings, break-ins and fraud.

"With re­spect to kid­nap­pings, in most in­stances, ar­rests have al­ready been made. The break­ing of­fences oc­curred pre­dom­i­nant­ly in the St James and West End Po­lice Dis­tricts.

"A sus­pect who we be­lieve is re­spon­si­ble for most of the St James break-ins is in fact in cus­tody at this time, while a crime plan has re­cent­ly been launched in the West End dis­trict, with the in­put from and close col­lab­o­ra­tion from com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers."