00:00And so the questions would have been asked, what does public health has to do with a boy holding a
00:06gun and shooting it to take another's life? For many, the direct connection is difficult to see, and I accept
00:13that.
00:14CARACOM Chairman Dr. Terence Drew, the Prime Minister of St. Kittsandivis, speaking on CARACOM's position that violent crime is a
00:21public health concern, as CARACOM and the UNDP formally launched their diagnostic document and the proposed CARACOM-UN framework for
00:32action.
00:32I want to stress that law enforcement and the judicial system are critically important. Please, I want that to be
00:39said as well. So I'm not downplaying that in any way.
00:42I'm simply saying that that alone is not the answer.
00:47Prime Minister Drew said that in the 1990s, a public health researcher first introduced him to the concept that crime
00:55and violence has a lot to do with public health.
00:57He then said to me that he did a study in the prison and found that a lot of these
01:04men who were locked up, they actually had treatable mental health issues and that they had gone through, they were
01:13never diagnosed, they were never treated.
01:18And then I paused and he said, yes, he said, had they been treated, many of them would have been
01:23productive citizens and that ended up in jail.
01:26The CARACOM chairman recalled what his country was facing after he earned his advanced medical degree.
01:33And then find myself in politics and then the minister of national security in a region with extremely high rates
01:41of interpersonal violence and a country that had so much violence at what point they call it the devil's island.
01:50That is where we are coming from.
01:53And others had mentioned and called us the murder capital of the world.
01:59Prime Minister Drew said he sought collaboration with the police and the judiciary in St. Kitsa-Livis while seeking the
02:05political will.
02:06I call opposition, the opposition leader and the opposition members in parliament.
02:15I must admit that that is very challenging to do across the Caribbean.
02:20Dr. Drew also spoke about the involvement of the UN.
02:23And so we saw a significant drop in crime and violence.
02:31Not just major crime, but we saw a drop across the board.
02:36Major crime had fallen by between 75 to 80 percent, the biggest drop in the Caribbean.
02:46The biggest drop was not in any other country except St. Kitsa-Livis.
02:50Prime Minister Drew made reference to CARACOM's meeting on violent crime as a public health concern held in Trinidad and
02:56Tobago, hosted by the former government in 2023.
03:01The government, led by Prime Minister Kamala Posada-Basasa since the 2025 general election, as well as the police service,
03:08have declared a 42 percent drop in murders in 2025 during the then state of emergency in Trinidad and Tobago.
03:15A second SOE, which, like the first one, does not have a curfew and does not have limitations on public
03:22gatherings, has been in effect in Trinidad and Tobago since March 3rd of this year.
03:28Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
03:32Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
03:32Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
03:32Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
03:32Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
03:32Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
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