De­spite a re­port­ed drop in sev­er­al cat­e­gories of crime, in­clud­ing mur­ders, Port-of-Spain South MP and for­mer Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Kei­th Scot­land has dis­missed the on­go­ing State of Emer­gency (SoE) as an “ab­ject fail­ure,” ar­gu­ing that vi­o­lent crime con­tin­ues de­spite the ex­tra­or­di­nary mea­sure.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia on Thurs­day, Scot­land ques­tioned whether the con­tin­ued use of the SoE could be jus­ti­fied by a 13 per cent re­duc­tion in mur­ders.

He added that his as­sess­ment of the sit­u­a­tion is based on pub­lic per­cep­tion and lived ex­pe­ri­ence, say­ing, “More im­por­tant­ly, my yard­stick is do we feel that crime is un­der con­trol in Trinidad and To­ba­go and my view is that crime has now gone in spite of and in light of a State of Emer­gency.”