SAUTT confirms it tapped Kamla's phone, but says it was for security reasons

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar told Parliament on Thursday night that the Special Anti-Crime Unit of Trinidad and Tobago (SAUTT) was operating as a spy agency and tapped people's phones.

In announcing changes to the elite security force established by former Prime Minister Patrick Manning she said, “We will restructure the unit and downsize it to focus on two core functions. Right now it is all over the place, including tapping my cellphone, I understand, and yours.”

Read the story: PM Kamla to revamp SAUTT, use ICT's to track criminals

Now SAUTT has confirmed that it had indeed tapped Persad-Bissessar's phone before the May 24 general election. However it claims that it was a necessary security measure and not done with malice.

The SAUTT admission is in a report in the SUNDAY NEWSDAY newspaper.

According to the report, SAUTT used wiretapping equipment to monitor conversations and both incoming and outgoing calls.

The equipment was programmed to trigger an alarm to SAUTT’s database when certain key words were spoken on a phone, including kill, rape, murder, abduct, stab/maim among others.

NEWSDAY said SAUTT sources revealed the agency's database is connected directly to the cellphone or phones belonging to Persad-Bissessar and other top persons in the country. SAUTT has not advised them of its activity.

The paper said SAUTT officers claimed that its decision to tap Persad-Bissessar's phone was a security measure and not meant for spying or for malicious purposes.

Officers told the paper SAUTT took a decision to monitor Persad-Bissessar's phones in the event of death threats or other threats to her life. They said the move made it easier for them to deal directly with any threat.

But the Prime Minister is not amused or comfortable with that.

She told NEWSDAY, "I have heard rumours of wiretapping on my phone. I do not know if these rumours are true, but if they are in fact true it is a gross invasion of my privacy and I would have preferred to have been informed of any wiretapping for security and safety purposes."

Wiretapping in Trinidad and Tobago is illegal.

NEWSDAY said it was told by SAUTT sources that prior to the setting up of SAUTT seven years ago the Police Service made an arrangement with the Telecommunication Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT ) to allow the police to trace phone calls made to kidnap victims. That arrangement still exists, the paper said.

NEWSDAY said SAUTT insisted that its wiretapping activities were never used for any malicious purposes.

However, it reported that a Government source said officers assigned to the Unit have indicated that wiretapping continues at SAUTT and the information was used for other purposes rather than used as a security measure.

Newsday said 55 of the expat officers at SAUTT are British police officers hired by the former administration on three-year contracts. Those officers are paid between $100,000 and $120,000 per month and receive housing allowances as much as $15,000 per month.

They also don't pay for transport, groceries and uniforms and also get other benefits, the paper said. It added that the salary of the head of SAUTT, Brigadier Peter Joseph, is $25,000 per month.

The opposition People's National Movement has complained that the new government is spending too much to hire Canadian Dwayne Gibbs as the country's Commissioner of Police. Gibbs will receive a salary of about TT$120,000 a month.