Yardies and Feds coming

This was announced by Prime Minister Patrick Manning during his presentation of the Budget yesterday. "We are targeting Scotland Yard to establish a unit in Trinidad and Tobago that will provide equipment and expertise to the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service.

"The FBI will be targeted to establish a unit to assist with the reorganisation of the service," said Manning.

He also announced that the FBI would also be setting up a unit in this country.

The Yardies and Feds will work closely with the Special Anti-Crime Unit which was set up under instructions from Government.

The unit is led by Brigadier Peter Joseph who reports directly to Minister of National Security Martin Joseph.

Last week, following the abduction and murder of businessman Eddie Koury, the Chamber of Commerce pleaded with Govern-ment to bring in foreign experts to deal with the runaway crime situation in the country.

Before announcing the pending arrival of the Yardies and Feds, Manning boasted that his Government had made a number of strategic interventions which would go a long way to address the current crime wave on a sustainable basis.

He said that some of the more important initiatives include acquisition of state of the art crime fighting technology. That package he said includes an aerial surveillance system outfitted with radar and imaging systems; a forward looking infrared camera; 24 mobile police units; sky watch units; a 360-degree radar system which will be available in the next few days; four armed helicopters; six fast patrol boats; and three offshore patrol boats.

Tenders for three offshore patrol vessels are to be awarded in the next month; the first two of these are expected to be delivered in the first quarter of 2007.

Manning said that the Inter-Agency Task Force was concentrating on hot spot crime areas and an Incident Co-ordination Centre has also been set up.

He also revealed that in November 2005, the police service will take possession of 149 additional vehicles, while work on five police stations in Mayaro, Gasparillo, Belmont, Tuna-puna and Toco began earlier this month.

"Mr Speaker, we feel strongly that our fight against crime must also be integrated with a strategy to provide alternative opportunities for socialisation and training for our youth to woo them away from deviant behaviour.

"Government is accelerating the implemenation of three military led specialised youth programmes which will provide training for 1,100 young persons," said Prime Minister Manning.