MANAGER of the High Street, San Fernando, branch of First Citizens bank, Vernie Shield, has called on business owners in the city to seriously consider installing camera monitoring devices along the main business district.

Shield said the import duty tax had been removed from CCTV equipment, according to Finance Minister Larry Howai in last month's national budget.

The Express was told that many of the CCTV cameras currently installed in San Fernando, and which are expected to be monitored by City and State police officers, are not working.

Shield made the comment while addressing members of the San Fernando Business Association during a meeting at the City Hall auditorium on Tuesday.

The meeting was attended by National Security Minister Jack Warner, Minster of Gender, Youth and Child Development Marlene Coudray and Public Administration Minister Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan.

Warner commended Shield for his recommendations and said in six months time the "whole country should have CCTV" monitors and that citizens will see a difference.

Warner said crime was everybody's business and unless members of society did not become actively involving in change, all would fail.

Warner said he was appalled when he visited Beetham Gardens earlier this week and was confronted by a young man having obtained eight CXC and eight CAPE passes, who still could not obtain a job because of his postal address.

"If we don't remove the social problems that facilitate crime we are in trouble. Children as young as seven years old are carrying guns for their parents. It is an epidemic in this country," Warner said.

Warner said there are plans to help with crime reduction, including the recruitment of more special reserve police officers, more police vehicles, highway patrols, a cracking down on drug blocks, and to weed out corrupt police officers.