‘I am not satisfied’

“It is easy to say change the minister. The last government showed that changing the minister did not change anything.

There were four or five national security (ministers) in the last government,” he said.

While the ministry was the policy making body, Rowley said, agencies like the police service and army are the executing bodies.

Reiterating that TT is a violent and lawless society, he said, “What I am trying to do is suppress some of that violence, if not, all of it and have a system where people are held accountable for their behaviour. We need some serious attitudinal changes in this country.” The job of the 8,000 police officers, he said, is to respond to the criminals.

However, he added, there are corrupt elements in the police service. “Rooting out corruption in the police service is something that is fundamental to the creation of a service that the population can trust, and officers themselves can trust their colleagues,” he said.

He gave the example of a machine gun being found in a community.

For the weapon to be retrieved, the find had to be reported to another police station outside of that community. Another source of frustration, he said, was the country not having a substantive Commissioner of Police (CoP).

“The last analysis from my advisers is that between the DPA (Department of Public Administration) and the Police Service Commission, somewhere in there, is stuck this country’s inability to appoint a commissioner,” he said.