CRIME STOPPERS DOUBLE GUN REWARDS

As crime stoppers doubles its rewards for illegal guns until the end of the state of emergency, Daren Carmichael disputes it's a gun amnesty.

Transcript

00:00The murder toll stands at 94, compared with 134 for the same period last year.

00:0869 of those homicides were basically done with the use of firearms.

00:16A further breakdown of those 69 homicides would show at least 6 of them involved female individuals

00:26and 63 male persons.

00:31A further breakdown, we recognize at least 18 of those homicides thus far was at least persons 24 years and under.

00:48Acting Police Commissioner Junior Benjamin says young people with great potential are being wasted away and the TTPS must do something.

00:57Therein lies the partnership between the TTPS and the Crime Stoppers Program.

01:02Let's consider the police of Trinidad and Tobago today, they're stumped.

01:06They've done all they could have done during the period of the SOE thus far.

01:12And they need the help now to get that extra push to go forward to get the guns where they are.

01:18Crime Stoppers has doubled rewards for illegal firearms.

01:22We've raised the reward amount for pistols and revolvers to $4,000 per handgun.

01:30We've increased the amount to $5,000 for shotguns.

01:37And we know that the weapon of choice for most of these criminals out there is the AR-15s and the automatic weapons and so on, those rifles.

01:45So those rifles can now fetch somebody who is calling in information $7,000 per firearm.

01:53The illegal gun removal program will continue throughout the remainder of the state of emergency, that is until April 13th.

02:02There's no caller ID, no call tracing, nothing on the line that will give out your identity.

02:07The call center, the call takers never ask who you are.

02:11They don't ask a name or anything that would divulge your identity.

02:15And I can safely say knock wood again that they have been safe from that period to today.

02:20He says there are also online platforms to send in the tips.

02:24But is this a gun amnesty of sorts?

02:28This is by no means an amnesty.

02:30This is us simply recognizing that there is a need to further incentivize the public who have that information about crime,

02:39who particularly have the information about the guns because it is only the guns among that we have increased.

02:44So this is not an amnesty in any sense.

02:47It is simply us recognizing the importance.

02:50And I want to use the word again, intentionally doing something to make sure that we can bring in those weapons off the street.

02:57165 firearms have been taken off the streets throughout the duration of the state of emergency thus far.

03:05Arushi Tomari, Rupnaya, TV6 News.