Business leader: Too many cop squads

Speaking with Newsday after a function at National Petroleum’s Sea Lots headquarters yesterday, Roop-narine said neither Government nor the law enforcement agencies should believe they have turned the corner in the war against crime be-cause of Tuesday’s $700 million drug and arms bust on Monos Island.

At Thursday’s post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall, National Security Minister Martin Joseph said the success of that operation was the basis of the collaborative efforts of all law enforcement agencies and the use of improved crime-fighting technology.

However, Roopnarine warned Government against complacency because TT currently sits "in the eye of the storm" where the war against crime is concerned.

Referring to the recent abductions of business people Dayne Paladee and Vanessa Sookhai-Singh, Roop-narine said the pattern for kidnappings in TT over the last two and a half years was determined by American anti-terrorism expert Thomas Clayton and his consultancy firm in 2002. "They hit for two or three months and then they go off for two to three months. As soon as the heat is off, they return," he stated.

Roopnarine said while Govern-ment has been "trying its best" to bring crime under control, the Police Service remains highly disorganised and needs to streamline its operations.

You have too many task forces for crime, narcotics — there are too many squads. We need to harmonise all those things, if not rationalise," he said. He also said the business community is concerned about efforts to investigate reports of dirty cops in the Police Service, and bring them to justice.