Griffith slams ‘watering down’ of crime policies

“Unfortunately all we have seen is a further dismantling of crucial policies that contributed, not just to crime being reduced, but the reduction of the fear of crime by citizens through the National Operations Centre (NOC), Rapid Response Unit (RRU) and the Highway Patrol just to name a few.

These units worked in tandem with each other providing the necessary checks and balances and ensuring that units were made accountable and performance measured.” Griffith also slammed government’s decision to move the NOC as a sub-unit under the Ministry of National Security under the Strategic Services Agency (SSA), saying that the decision has caused a lack of coordination among agencies and has also made it difficult to gauge the performance of units under the ministry.

“This is what the NOC was designed for. But what is needed is to acquire the feel of technology such as police vehicles equipped with GPS (Global Positioning System) devices to ensure that police operate within their range of responsibility and can be evaluated to ensure that they act towards distress calls.” Asked about the fate of vehicles issued to the CCP, Griffith said the vehicles were leased by a private security company and the vehicles would now be returned to the company.