Joseph: TT investigating Giuliani crime plan

NATIONAL SECURITY Minister Martin Joseph said Government is doing its own investigations into a crime proposal submitted last December by former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s company, Giuliani and Partners.

Addressing a news conference at the National Security Ministry’s Port-of-Spain headquarters yesterday, Joseph said it was misleading to say that Government had been giving the Giuliani proposal “the cold shoulder.” The Minister said Giuliani’s request was received on December 18, Government sent a response 24 hours later, and on January 6 further correspondence was sent to Giuliani and Partners “asking for some more details.” Joseph added that it was highly improper that the request “was in a newspaper (not Newsday) before it even got to us.” He then revealed that “while we are waiting on a response we have been doing our research.” “We have been looking at the performance (of a similar Giuliani crime plan) in Mexico. We have been gathering all the information,” the Minister stated.

The Giuliani-Mexico crime plan, submitted to Mexican authorities on August 7, 2003, has been widely criticised by several Latin American publications and the New York-based Lawyers for Human Rights Committee for being deficient in several areas. A nine-month feasibility study of the plan cost Mexico City officials US$4.3 million and the reported cost to implement the plan over the next three years is over US $60 million. Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday said the Giuliani crime proposal would not work in TT without constitutional reform and Giuliani himself was aware of that.

Joseph reiterated that Government’s commitment to reducing crime was not merely “ole talk” and it was open to all suggestions on that issue. “Wherever assistance can be provided that will help in that regard, we are going to take on board but at the same time we have to do it in a very constructive and organised way, because it is the same population that will be hard on us if at the end of the day we do not reduce crime and criminal activity,” the Minister said. Joseph said his Ministry was not afraid to give regular reports on the status of the Government’s anti-crime initiatives and noted recent fears raised in Jamaica when a suggestion was made that law enforcement authorities give quarterly crime statistics.