Some E-999 moved to PoS

Acting Police Commissioner Everald Snaggs met with members of his executive yesterday and announced new changes for the Police Service. Among the changes announced are the removal of some of the E-999 units from Central and Northern divisions to the Police Barracks and Traffic Branch. The changes will affect E-999 in Central, St Joseph, Tunapuna and Arima. The existing E-999 units will be left in Eastern, Southern and South Western divisions based on the crime rate in each division. Newsday learned that the move is part of the plan to ensure a heightened visible presence of the police in high crime areas such as Laventille and Morvant. The decision to move the E-999 units forms part of an anti-crime plan which Acting Police Commissioner Everald Snaggs will be introducing shortly as a pilot project. Port-of-Spain is the division with the highest crime rate in terms of murders, kidnappings and serious crime. The E-999 units will work alongside the existing joint police/army patrols based at VMCOTT to ensure that any reports of crime are responded to as quickly as possible.

Officers based at Highway patrols in Central, and Northern divisions throughout the country will also be moved to Traffic Branch and the St James Barracks. Senior officers told Newsday that the idea is to win back some of the confidence from members of the public in terms of police response to crime and the visibility in high crime areas. Newsday learned that the problem of mobility for the service was made known to the Acting Police Commissioner and he assured that every attempt will be made to ensure that the situation is dealt with. In almost all police divisions, officers have been seriously hampered by a problem with transport. Most of the existing vehicles are not working effectively and in some instances officers use their own vehicles to respond to reports of crime.