00:00According to Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister and MP for Coover South, Barry Padarath,
00:06law enforcement, the government and by extension the country is on the right track when it comes to reducing homicides.
00:13In a short space of three months coming into office, again it is not where we want it to be,
00:19but we have to start from somewhere at this very juncture where we are today on August 4th.
00:25In 2020, the murder rate was 271. In 2022, it was 329. In 2023, it was 341. In 2024, it was 358.
00:39At the exact moment today, in 2025, we are the lowest it has been in five years with 231.
00:47Now, I don't feel proud to stand up here and beat my chest. It's only 231. It needs to go down lower, but it is going in the right direction.
00:59Padarath says it has in part to do with working along with law enforcement and mitigating the funding of crime.
01:07Using the data, which is very important, to inform the decisions that we make in terms of where the money is going, who is funding crime.
01:18When you take the money out of the crime, then you will have the drops.
01:22The minister has taken stock of the intermittent concerns expressed over programs like CPAP and URP,
01:29but he points to the need for change, sentiments he attributes to Prime Minister Kamala Passat-Bissasa.
01:35Everybody's complaining from time to time about when is URP going to be restarted, what you're going to do about URP, what you're going to do about CPAP, etc.
01:47When the commissioner of police is telling us that it is those same contracts within these programs that are providing the financing for criminals to invade your homes, to rape your daughters, to go into transnational crime.
02:06Padarath is denying that the government is playing politics with these programs.
02:10It is not because we don't like this one and we don't like that one and we don't want people in this area and so it has nothing to do with that.
02:18What it has to do with is utilizing the data and working alongside law enforcement.
02:24So there are elements within the opposition who want to parrot that before their own political currency.
02:30Padarath says the government will not waste time fighting commissioners of police, something he accuses the former PNM administration of.
02:38I want to congratulate the commissioner for aligning the policy of the administration with the operations of the TTPS.
02:49And we can get a lot more done if you get a greater harmonizing of that relationship.
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