Roy Augustus: Appoint Snaggs now

NATURAL JUSTICE demands the immediate appointment of Everald Snaggs as Police Commissioner. This was the declaration by Opposition Senator Roy Augustus in his maiden contribution in the Senate yesterday.

Speaking on an amendment to the Firearms Act, Augustus said it was mind-boggling why a Police Commissioner has not been appointed and this was reducing the Police Service’s ability to deal with crime in Trinidad and Tobago because “it is difficult for a body to act without a head.” He disagreed with views that the present cadre of senior cops were incompetent to lead the Police Service and reminded the Senate that these officers “are the product of a PNM Government in another incarnation. “Natural justice demands that a Commissioner of Police (CoP) be appointed and Everald Snaggs be the CoP. I don’t see why you could not have a confirmed CoP,” Augustus declared to vigorous desk-thumping from the Opposition benches. The UNC senator lamented that “for the last ten years” the Police Service’s crime detection capability was of the order of 28 to 29 percent. “For whom are we increasing the punishment if we cannot catch them?” he asked.

Augustus claimed Government had allowed operations at the Forensic Sciences Centre to deteriorate by offering staffers short-term contracts. He said Barbados now has a state-of-the-art Forensic Sciences Centre and is now willing to offer the services of that facility to other Caricom nations, including TT. He also knocked the perennial problem of police immobility but inadvertently blasted the UNC for contributing to the problem when he indicated that “at no time in the last ten to 15 years” was the service’s vehicular fleet “up to strength” and it takes “six months to a year” to repair police vehicles. The former UNC regime was strongly criticised by the PNM for receiving a batch of 100 Cherokee jeeps for the Police Service from a company owned by UNC financer Ishwar Galbaransingh.

Augustus also said connections needed to be made between crime in the country and violence in schools.  He suggested that the Education Ministry place specially qualified teachers in problem schools and decleared that “every day the Biche school remains closed, opportunities are given for young children (from Biche)” to be exposed to crime. Recalling Government’s plans to create a Special Crime Unit and place 1,000 additional police officers on the streets, the UNC senator said: “We want to see these things actionised. The time for planning has long past.” On a personal note, Augustus said: “I would have given anything to have my boyhood friend (Arnim Smith) back in this seat. He was his own man.” Smith died last month of a ruptured aorta and last week, Augustus was sworn in as his replacement.