20,000 security guards to help T&T police fight crime

The government of Trinidad and Tobago plans to create an Estate Police Network Commission to co-opt the country's 20,000 private security personnel in the fight against crime.

It is part of a plan announced in Parliament Friday by National Security Minister John Sandy.

He said the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of crime will chair the commission, which will comprise senior personnel of top private security firms in Trinidad and Tobago.

The security officers would have access to a communications network that would link them directly with the police.

According to sandy, "The idea is to give security officers on duty at private locations an exclusive medium to communicate with the respective command centres, which in turn will possess facilities dedicated to instant connectivity with the nearest police station." he said.

He added that private security officers would be required to report any suspicious activity in their respective areas of operations.

Chaguanas west MP Jack Warner has used private security in his constituency to reinforce the security presence in areas where people had reported a high level of crime. Former Attorney General Ramesh L. Maharaj had done the same in Tabaquite.

Sandy said the crime plan will also include traffic surveillance using closed circuit cameras on the country's highways.

"We are proposing that we place these traffic surveillance bays along the highways which would allow our police vehicles to park and wait for such personnel on the roadway who would want to break our laws.

"It would afford them the ability to traverse any direction dependent on where the perpetrator is going. It would also allow them to, with radio contact, communicate with their fellow policemen on the route along which the perpetrator would be travelling.

"We would also ensure that only police vehicles use those bays and vehicles of the Defence Force and protective services in cases of emergency and with the CCTV cameras posted there we should be able to determine whether the law is being breached," he said.