TT police service to be revamped

GOVERNMENT has allocated $5.7 million to a United States criminologist and his transformation team, to revamp the TT police service and get results in effectively fighting crime. The team led by Dr Stephen Mastrofski of George Mason University in Washington has been given one year to implement changes, which are expected to cause positive changes to the service from the top to the bottom. Minister of National Security Martin Joseph held a press briefing at the Ministry of National Security yesterday to announce the start of the clean-up exercise and introduce Mastrofski to the local media.

Joseph revealed that while measures to be introduced were “not a crime plan,” the public will see the desired results. He noted that four other organisations forwarded proposals in order to win the contract but the Mastrofski team was deemed the most workable. The Rudolph Giuliani proposal would have cost TT, $15.1 million. Minister Joseph said that that proposal was not feasible and was also considered not suitable for Trinidad and Tobago. The Giuliani proposal recommended a foreigner be Commissioner of Police to run the TT Police Service. This was rejected outright by the PNM administration. Giuliani is a former New York Mayor.

The Mastrofski team has already identified two priority needs for the local police force. These include improvement of the public’s safety from violent crime and to increase the public’s confidence in the police. A strategic approach to crime will be one of the first step to be introduced in improving police decision making. A second major initiative will be to strengthen the organisation’s crime analysis; introducing better crime data; an enhancement of prosecutorial success; generating more public support; building organisational muscle; and the establishment of a homicide task force. The task force will have inter-agency participation.

According to Dr Mastrofski, the task force will review a wide variety of policies and practices such as interception of illegal guns at sea, port security, developing intelligence on youth gangs, witness protection, forensic analysis of firearms, and prosecution and bail of firearm offenders. Police Commissioner Trevor Paul welcomed the move to revamp the service and in particular the intervention of Mastrofski and his team. Noel Chase, Secretary of the Police Association yesterday said that his association welcomed the transformation idea.