Merchants warn of rising crime affecting business

The Down­town Own­ers and Mer­chants As­so­ci­a­tion (DO­MA) is warn­ing that per­sis­tent in­ci­dents of vi­o­lent crime are un­der­min­ing pub­lic con­fi­dence, dis­rupt­ing busi­ness op­er­a­tions and wors­en­ing the eco­nom­ic chal­lenges fac­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go.

In a press re­lease, DO­MA ac­knowl­edged the no­tice­able de­cline in the mur­der rate but said oth­er se­ri­ous crimes con­tin­ued to threat­en cit­i­zens’ safe­ty and were hav­ing an in­creas­ing­ly neg­a­tive im­pact on small and medi­um-sized busi­ness­es.

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The as­so­ci­a­tion said fear among mem­bers of the pub­lic about leav­ing their homes was af­fect­ing con­sumer con­fi­dence and spend­ing, ar­gu­ing that this could be con­tribut­ing to the wide­ly held per­cep­tion that the coun­try was in a re­ces­sion.