New­ly-ap­point­ed Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Gary Grif­fith says he in­tends to seize crime "hot spots" from the con­trol of crim­i­nals and gangs. Grif­fith said: "There are cer­tain crim­i­nal el­e­ments that ac­tu­al­ly be­lieve that the com­mu­ni­ties be­long to them. This will end."These so-called hot spots will be seized and will again be­long to the cit­i­zens in those com­mu­ni­ties."Grif­fith made the com­ments while speak­ing to re­porters, fol­low­ing a meet­ing with his pre­de­ces­sor Em­manuel George at the min­istry on Aber­crom­by Street, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day. Sev­er­al se­nior mem­bers of the pro­tec­tive agen­cies, in­clud­ing act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Stephen Williams and act­ing Chief Fire Of­fi­cer Naya Ram­per­sad were al­so in at­ten­dance.

Grif­fith, for­mer na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty ad­vis­er to the Prime Min­is­ter, was ap­point­ed as part of the Cab­i­net reshuf­fle last Thurs­day. George now heads the Min­istry of Jus­tice. While ad­dress­ing the meet­ing, Grif­fith re­peat­ed­ly praised mem­bers of the pro­tec­tive agen­cies, de­scrib­ing them as world-class and "sec­ond to none.""What we need now is to pro­vide them with the ad­min­is­tra­tive and lo­gis­ti­cal sup­port that they re­quire to tru­ly be T&T's finest and for them to go ahead and pro­vide the cit­i­zens with their right to safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty," Grif­fith said. Grif­fith firm­ly said he would not sup­port any move to politi­cise the agen­cies that fall un­der his min­istry."I have no in­ten­tion for gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials and politi­cians to dic­tate the pace. I have seen it too of­ten. I was in the mil­i­tary and I felt it. This must not take place. The law en­force­ment agen­cies know what is re­quired of them," Grif­fith said.

He will fo­cus main­ly on crime pre­ven­tion dur­ing his tenure, he said."I in­tend not to spend too much time deal­ing with the so­cial as­pects."I am not say­ing that it is not im­por­tant. I ex­pect to spend a lot more time deal­ing with crime pre­ven­tion mea­sures," Grif­fith said. He al­so said he will be join­ing mem­bers of the pro­tec­tive ser­vices on an­ti-crime ex­er­cis­es."You will see less of me in a suit. I in­tend to be putting back on my com­bat boots. What I want to do is be on the ground to see what are the re­quire­ments of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice and De­fence Force," Grif­fith said.