FORMER police commissioner Gary Griffith is denying the police's claim that there was no spike in murders over the last few weeks.

In a media release on Wednesday, the police said they were “making it categorically clear” that recent, isolated reports of murders in some communities do not represent a “surge in murders,” as being reported.

The police service release did not specify where the surge in murders was being reported. Commentators on social media have linked Griffith's absence from the police commissioner's seat to the increase in murders.

In a social media post on Sunday, Griffith pointed out that before his departure in September, there were fewer murders committed as compared to the same period last year. He added that for the first seven months of this year there were 50 fewer murders than 2020.

“In the ten weeks or so since my contract ended, there have been 55 more murders for the same period (than) there (were) last year. In 18 months, or the second half of my contract, from January 2020-July 2021, there was a 30 per cent drop in murders for the same period before, which represents 200 (fewer) murders; 150 in 2020 and 50 in 2021.

"If there were 200 (fewer) murders in the second half of my contract, and 55 more than the previous year since I’ve not been there, isn’t that a spike?” Griffith asked.

The police media release said for this year, 72 people were charged with murder, while the murder toll up to last Wednesday was on par with last year’s figures of 340. In 2019 there were 439 murders.

Newsday requested the monthly murder toll from August to October for 2020 and 2021 last Wednesday and is still awaiting a response from the police.

Griffith also took aim at a Trinidad Express article which featured comments from so-called experts who said covid19 contributed significantly to the reduction in murders.

“There are 55 more murders for the last ten weeks, but we are still battling covid19, we still have lockdowns and we still have a curfew. How could those conditions be responsible for the low numbers in the last half of my contract, the previous 18 months, but not in the last ten weeks? Shouldn’t the numbers have continued to go down, like they did for the first part of the year?”

Griffith added that while there was a decrease in murders in TT during his tenure with the pandemic, there were increases in major cities in the US, which also had lockdowns and other restrictions on movement to battle the pandemic.

“This increase in crime in major US cities, like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles and right here in the last ten weeks involved criminals who didn't get the memo that during covid19, crime is supposed to be reduced.”