Former police commissioner Gary Griffith said threats made against the relatives of the current Police Commissioner and Government ministers had to be treated seriously, but cautioned that authorities must distinguish between genuine threats, intelligence and unsubstantiated statements.Speaking on TV6’s Morning Edition programme on Wednesday, Griffith said the public discussion surrounding threats against senior officials highlighted a wider issue of declining confidence and trust in the country’s security institutions.Griffith said he was concerned that a call made to the E999 emergency line had been treated as a major public issue before the threat was properly assessed.“I could not believe that the death threat was based on a call to E999,” he said.He said authorities received numerous threats daily, and that intelligence agencies had the responsibility of determining whether such reports were genuine or false.According to Griffith, while serving as police commissioner, he received 43 death threats, but said those incidents were handled through the appropriate security channels.He said there was a difference between a person making a threat in anger, information received by authorities and evidence that could support criminal action.“There is a difference between rants and rum shop talk, to information, to evidence,” Griffith said.He argued that the reported threat against the Commissioner’s family had not reached the stage of intelligence or evidence and appeared, based on the information available, to be a statement made by an individual rather than a credible threat.“If someone really wanted to kill someone, you think they would pick up the phone and announce it beforehand?” he said.Griffith said threats against senior officials were not new and had historically been dealt with through security assessments rather than public announcements.He said individuals holding senior positions, including the Prime Minister, ministers and security officials, routinely received threats that had to be assessed by intelligence agencies.Griffith referred to a Special Branch assessment during his tenure which identified him as the person considered most at risk of assassination in the history of Trinidad and Tobago. He said such threats were part of the security environment faced by senior officials.“This is the norm,” he said. “You dealt with it without the whole country knowing.”He stressed that he was not suggesting the Police Commissioner had deliberately publicised the matter, but said authorities had to be careful not to create unnecessary public alarm before determining whether a threat was credible.Griffith said each threat had to be analysed, and where necessary, investigators had to identify the person responsible and take appropriate action.He also addressed comments about threats against Government ministers, saying such incidents had occurred for years and were not a new development.He gave an example which involved conversations about assassinating political figures, noting that intelligence gathering was necessary to determine whether there was sufficient information to support criminal charges.He said statements made between individuals about committing an offence did not automatically amount to evidence of a criminal act.“If two people are recorded and they say they want to assassinate a Prime Minister, that is not by itself a criminal offence,” Griffith said.However, he added that if intelligence gathering showed there was intent and evidence to support the allegations, the matter could move beyond intelligence and become a basis for charges.“Without that, all you have is information,” he said.Griffith also noted that while crime figures had shown a reduction, public perception remained a critical measure of whether citizens felt safe.“The perception and fear of crime is just as important as the reduction of crime itself,” Griffith said.He argued that repeated statements about declining crime figures had not changed how many citizens viewed their personal safety.Griffith said the effectiveness of a police commissioner should not be judged solely by ratings from political officials, the Police Service Commission or former senior police officers, but by public confidence in the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service.“When public perception and confidence and trust in a police service is less than 10 per cent, something has gone wrong,” he said.Griffith noted that public confidence figures had previously been higher, but had since declined, and said this demonstrated that more work was required to rebuild trust in law enforcement.He said reducing murders alone would not be enough if citizens did not believe the wider system was working.“You can bring murders down to 100 per annum, but the country will never see that as a victory because they have no faith in the system and they will see the State as failing,” Griffith said.He added that improving public confidence required accountability, performance measurement, effective management and greater accessibility from senior officials.