A
alexk
Guest
There has been a drastic reduction in the number of cases involving children charged with serious criminal offences, according to the Child Protection Unit of the T&T Police Service.
According to the most recent statistics, for the period January 1 to May 19, there have been 53 child offenders, as compared to 96 for the same period last year.
This signals, according to CPU’s Sgt Michelle Lewis, a 45 per cent reduction.
Lewis was speaking at the TTPS’ weekly media briefing which was held yesterday at the Police Administration Building in Port-of-Spain.
The TTPS’ goal is to implement a Booking Centre in each of the nine police divisions. In March, Booking Centres at the Maracas/St Joseph Police Station and Oropouche and Brasso Police Stations became operational.
These centres service the Port-of-Spain Juvenile Court Project/Children’s Court for matters along the East-West corridor and the Fyzabad Juvenile Court Project/Children’s Court for matters along in Central, South and South Western areas respectively.
Booking Centres will soon be established at the Maraval, Belmont, Gasparillo and Moruga Police Stations.
Lewis, in her statement, disclosed that in 53 per cent of matters the children were at the Maracas/St Joseph Booking Centre for various offences. She added that Oropouche accounted for 32 per cent of the offenders and 11 per cent at Brasso.
“The prevalent offences being robbery, possession of firearm and ammunition,” Lewis said.
There has also been a “slight decrease” of three per cent in crimes committed against children when compared to the corresponding period in 2017. The figure moved from 259 to 252.