The establishment of an elite tactical team for high-priority criminal threats is one of several new crime-fighting measures that will be implemented if the PNM regains power.
Prime Minister Stuart Young made this announcement during a People’s National Movement meeting held Thursday night in Signature Hall, Chaguanas, where he also presented measures for crime prevention and national security.
- Advertisement -
Young, who held the position of Minister of National Security from 2018 to 2021, first made fun of the UNC’s remarks on crime prevention and national security before outlining some of his party’s agenda.
According to him, there were plans to employ the best personnel with the “best equipment, the best intelligence, and the best training” possible since crime suppression required a specialized squad to handle high-level threats.
To prevent sensitive material from leaking, Young stated that the officers in the unit will be subjected to polygraph testing in addition to having the best resources possible for operational success.
Young stated, “You need a squad of people that they know when they join that squad they are the best of the best and anytime they get intelligence or are told that a crime going to happen here, a drug deal happening there, a gang operating there, not one of them in that squad are going to pick up that phone to call or warn anybody.”
“They get the intelligence tonight from the equipment that is existing and they know that a drug shipment coming on the southwestern peninsula tonight, quietly, efficiently they are there and as you come, they hit them hard.”
Young stated that the new unit will be commanded by the TTPS with support from the Defense Force and that its troops will undergo the “best tactical training in the world.”
According to him, the unit’s duties would not be included in regular police security drills.
In November of last year, T&T and the US government agreed to create a vetted squad to combat crime.
In 2003, the Special Anti-Crime Unit of TT (SAUTT) was established during the Patrick Manning government. Its legal standing was questioned, nevertheless, and the People’s Partnership administration dismantled it in 2010.
The Special Operations Response Team (SORT) was established in 2018 under the direction of former police commissioner Gary Griffith.
Joel Belcon and Andrew Morris allegedly died from beatings while in police custody, and the unit was abolished in 2022. Andrea Bharatt, a 22-year-old legal clerk from Arima, was abducted and killed in 2021, and Morris and Belcon were the suspects.
In its stead, the National Operations Task Force (NOTF) was established.
Young’s ideas for a special squad are not new, according to retired Senior Sergeant Roger Alexander, the UNC candidate for Tunapuna.
Young was charged by Alexander, the head of the SORT and later the NOTF, with “copying” the UNC’s ideas.
He stated, “Every time we say something we realize two days later it is said in a different way, in a different forum, but what we have prepared a manifesto and within that manifesto, we see that certain types of piggy-backing is coming from that proposal but we are treating with our situation, whatever they choose to do is on them.”
Young also said that draft legislative rules were created to insulate undercover police personnel from criminal culpability while they collect evidence and information about crimes.
Alexander, however, argued that law had already been debated and questioned the applicability of such operations in a contemporary setting when information might be obtained by other ways besides human intelligence, particularly in relation to international crimes.
Garvin Heerah, a regional security specialist who was contacted for comment, stated that although Young’s ideas are a “step in the right direction,” politics should not have any impact on them. He recommended including skilled and knowledgeable professionals who could direct the application of any plans.
“It is in this critical space of implementation that the guidance, input, and leadership of subject matter experts become indispensable. The real-time security environment is dynamic, complex, and often unforgiving.”
Heerah stated, “As such, it requires the steady hands of trained professionals with deep field experience, analytical capabilities, and a pulse on local, regional, and international trends to drive these initiatives from concept to sustained impact.”
