SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er has promised to crack down on crime and re­turn Trinidad and To­ba­go to a lev­el of nor­mal­cy, even if it means bring­ing back the fly­ing squad and oth­er mea­sures that worked in the past. He said this yes­ter­day in an in­ter­view at his Ch­agua­nas West con­stituen­cy of­fice at Ca­roni Sa­van­nah Road, where over 300 peo­ple had gath­ered to seek help.

Warn­er said he plans to is­sue a full state­ment to­mor­row, fol­low­ing a meet­ing with key of­fi­cials in the var­i­ous arms of his new min­istry. A new crime plan will be re­vealed in two to three weeks time, the Min­is­ter as­sured. Warn­er said his ap­point­ment sig­nals the "dawn of a new era" as he hopes to in­sti­tute a new lev­el of morale in the pro­tec­tive ser­vice and a new lev­el of re­spect for the law.

Warn­er said he was not in sup­port of the 21st cen­tu­ry po­lice ini­tia­tive, and had last month be­rat­ed the po­lice for the clo­sure of the Ca­roni Po­lice Sta­tion. Warn­er said it was a para­dox that the gov­ern­ment was build­ing nine po­lice sta­tions while oth­ers are be­ing closed.

He said he has no in­ten­tion of sup­port­ing the clo­sure of any­more po­lice sta­tions but will re­quest more pa­trols, es­pe­cial­ly on the week­end when there is an up­surge in road ac­ci­dents. Warn­er al­so sug­gest­ed that plans for the nine po­lice sta­tions be mod­i­fied to in­clude ad­di­tion­al space for fire sta­tions.

'It can't be busi­ness as usu­al'

He is­sued a warn­ing to road users who break the law-es­pe­cial­ly peo­ple who con­sume al­co­hol-that they would have to pay a heavy price. "It can't be busi­ness as usu­al," Warn­er said. Warn­er said he plans to give his full sup­port to po­lice­men who are in sup­port of his crime-bust­ing ini­tia­tives, which will be an­nounced short­ly, with­in the next two weeks to a month.

He said he plans to vis­it po­lice sta­tions at any hour and any time and even go on po­lice raids from time to time. He said he would go to any length to en­sure that law­men get good and fair treat­ment. How­ev­er, he warned law­men who break the law and use their of­fice to ter­rorise the com­mu­ni­ty.

The new Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter said it was on­ly last Mon­day that peo­ple from Five Rivers com­plained about be­ing ter­rorised by po­lice. He said he in­tends to in­ves­ti­gate the com­plaint this week. Warn­er al­so plans to set up a hot­line in every di­vi­sion to re­ceive com­plaints as he seeks to root out all bad ap­ples out of the ser­vice.

He said it was time to go back to the ba­sics to get crime un­der con­trol, even if it means bring­ing back the fly­ing squad and get­ting more so­cial groups as the girl guides, scouts and cadets ac­tive in all schools. He has no in­ten­tion of be­ing un­der the guard of heav­i­ly armed po­lice of­fi­cers like Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ters of the past, and he wants to in­ter­act with the po­lice and the pub­lic to get feed­back. Warn­er said he plans to as­sist the po­lice to clean up Ch­agua­nas West.

Warn­er to row­ley

My life has been a lega­cy of suc­cess. Warn­er said he has no in­ten­tion of dig­ni­fy­ing any state­ment made by Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley, since his life has been a lega­cy of suc­cess. "Peo­ple will judge me by the suc­cess with which I have led my life. In every sphere of my life I have suc­ceed­ed. Can Row­ley say the same?" He thanked Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar for the con­fi­dence she had in him.