Foreign help for local cops, Police Bills make a come back

NATIONAL SECURITY Minister Martin Joseph yesterday announced that Government has approved a $5.4 million proposal to bring a team of American experts to help to improve  the Police Service and that the Police Reform Bills will be brought back to Parliament. Addressing the post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall, Joseph said Cabinet approved a recommendation from his Ministry “for the engagement of Professor Stephen Mastrofski of George Mason University and a team to assist in the transformation of the Police Service.” The Minister disclosed that Mastrofski has visited Trinidad and Tobago on four occasions, has been assessing the needs of the Service and “has been in a position to provide us with a proposal that we believe that is not only cost effective, but will bring about the transformation which  we seek.”

The Mastrofski plan will focus on the Service’s management structure,  performance management system of the Police Service and the Police Complaints Division (PCD). Joseph added that the PCD “is going to be given first priority.” The plan’s time frame is for fiscal 2005 and will involve participation from San Francisco State University, Penn State University, the University of the West Indies and other local stakeholders. The Minister said the key aspect of the Mastrofski plan is how to achieve maximum efficiency within the Police Service “all within the context of the lack of the appropriate legislative requirements” that would bring proper management to the Service.  

Recalling Government’s inability to garner Opposition support to pass the Police Reform Bills in Parliament earlier this year, Joseph declared: “At the end of the day, that is the ideal (Police Reform Bills), that is what we are going to need to do (bring them back to Parliament). The ideal thing is an independent authority to investigate police. We know that.” Questioned why Government accepted Mastrofski’s proposal over one advanced by former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Joseph said Mastrofski and George Mason University had an “excellent record” in transforming police organisations in the United States and many other countries. The Minister said the Giuliani proposal involved his company coming to TT “for six months to do an assessment of the police and make recommendations at a cost of US$2.5 million (TT$15.1 million).

“That was all (Giuliani offered). We now have somebody who is going to bring hands on (experience). After careful consideration, Government rejected the (Giuliani proposal because we felt it was not in the country’s best interest, nor was it cost effective,” he explained. Joseph said in addition to this initiative, Government has been simultaneously strengthening other law enforcement agencies such as the Special Anti-Crime Unit and the Defence Force “to provide us with the level of security and safety required in a changing environment.” He said Police Commissioner Trevor Paul would address issues pertaining to recent kidnappings in TT, the Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Firearms Interdiction Unit at a news conference later yesterday.