The Tribune

IN highlighting some good news – with a drop in the murder rate so far this year – Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander also illuminated the problems that we face.

Some of that is in the illegal guns on the streets, the drug gangs taking advantage of our society, and so on, which is something we can work to fight but which we do not have full control over.

However, Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis, speaking at the same crime symposium in Trinidad and Tobago, highlighted some of the things that we can change ourselves.

He said: ““We must reform our bail policies, review our legal systems, and explore ways to expedite cases while ensuring that the rights of the accused are respected. The bloodshed on the streets of the Caribbean is a heart-wrenching tragedy, and we must do everything in our power to put an end to it.”

Too often, we see court cases where someone is being dealt with over crimes that are five, six, seven, eight years and more in the past. Some of the delays in recent times are down to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic – but that merely exacerbated a problem long faced by our nation.

If you take for example a murder case, which is not held for years on end, the suspect is likely to be out on bail. Why? Well, they are, of course, innocent until proven guilty and so otherwise you end up with a potentially innocent person locked away for years on end. Imagine being innocent behind bars for five or six years while the real killer walked free in the streets.

Conversely, in many of these cases the suspects are indeed the guilty parties but are out on bail and perhaps have the capacity and the motivation to intimidate witnesses in their case – or worse.

Police have warned that many of the fatal shootings we have seen have been of people out on bail – but given that some of those have been on bail for years, it seems less like reprisal for recent crimes and more being caught up in communities that have too long been plagued by violence, gangs, crime, unemployment and an absence of hope.

Mr Davis talks of reviewing bail policies – but the real issue is to get court cases heard and dealt with faster. If cases are being heard in a timely fashion, there is no need to be releasing suspects on bail who would be better off behind bars. If cases are being dealt with inside a year rather than lingering in the system for half a decade and longer, then there is an expectation that justice can be done, rather than reprisals being carried out on the street.

For too many, the prospect of the authorities dealing with a crime is a remote and distant one.

But Mr Davis is on the right path – the question now is when will these reforms take place and how soon can we see our sluggish legal system transformed into something fit for purpose?

It will take resources. That means money. That means more judges. That means reforms in the forms of legislation being passed. It perhaps means greater funds for police forensic teams, for the coroner, and more. We have already seen that there was a long delay in resuming hearings into police shootings because of the difficulty of finding an officer to handle such matters – so it is not simply a case of throwing money at a situation but finding the right people to carry out what needs to be done.

If we know what needs to be done then the next step is to do it. None of the problems outlined above with delays in court cases or the need for legal system reform are new. Many years have passed without reforms having enough of an effect to stop the large numbers of people out on bail, multi-year delays in cases or people being shot dead while on release. So if the time is now, that is good to hear. It will be even better to see it done.