Anti-Crime Unit to report to PM

EMPOWERED by the authority of President George Maxwell Richards and the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, the Special Anti-Crime Unit of TT has joined the war against the criminal elements and “no one must be under any apprehension concerning Government’s firm resolve to make all of the country’s national security forces available for deployment in order to confront and overcome the present threats.”

This was the declaration yesterday from National Security Minister Martin Joseph during a news conference at his Ministry’s Abercromby Street headquarters. Joseph said units from the Police Service and the TT Defence Force “are being constituted under the authority of his Excellency the President of the Republic of TT and the Minister of National Security as provided for in the Defence Force Act and the Police Service Regulations,” and will be brought under the umbrella organisation of Special Anti-Crime Unit of TT to focus “on crimes of national security significance, namely kidnapping, extortion, gang warfare, organised crime and terrorism.”

The Minister said the Unit which is part of a National Security Committee reporting regularly to the National Security Council of which Prime Minister Patrick Manning is chairman. The Unit will be headed by Brigadier Peter Joseph while its deputy directors will be an Assistant Commissioner of Police and Lt Colonel/ Commander from the TTDF. Joseph explained that the former will head the Unit’s investigations division which involves direct policing and will be undertaken by members of the Police Service” while the latter will head it’s operations division “which will be coordinated by members of the TTDF. “The Special Anti-Crime Unit of TT is not meant to replace the mandate of the Police Service. In fact, it provides a force multiplier effect to the existing capability of the Police Service, which has for some time been engaged in a series of sanctioned joint operations with the Defence Force. It will operate using established rules of engagement authorised by both the Chief of Defence Staff and Commissioner of Police,” he declared. Joseph said while perpetrators of “these serious misdeeds” were known to the authorities in many cases, it was not enough “to say we know who the players are,” because the State’s security arms had to operate within the confines of the Constitution and the law and Government is determined to uphold that ideal.

The Minister said equally important is “the indispensable need to gather justifiable evidence which can stand up in a court of law,” and the Unit’s task was not one for the “flamboyant, impetuous or the haphazard.” “Our objective therefore is to dismantle and smash the gangs and criminal organisations, not merely to apprehend the foot soldiers,” he declared. Describing the Unit as “primarily an intelligence-driven organisation,” Brig Joseph said the unit “will source and concentrate intelligence from numerous State agencies to tackle specific criminal activities,” and will support existing crime-prevention squads in the Police Service with the aim of implementing “a sustainable offensive that positively impacts on crime in the shortest time possible.” Brig Joseph said that over the last three months the Unit has been rationalising its structures, selecting personnel and holding discussions with local and international consultants (in the legal, diplomatic and law enforcement fields). He added that the Unit has been allocated a $30 million budget to meet its operational expenses for 2004. Joseph said his authority was not superior to either Police Commissioner Everald Snaggs or TT Defence Force Chief of Staff Brigadier Ancil Antoine. Minister Joseph said there will be regular assessments of TT’s “national security situation,” but he asked the population to be understanding of the need “to withhold information in the interest of the security of our operations and in order to avoid compromising successful outcomes.”