RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Roger Alexan­der says con­struc­tion of two ad­di­tion­al po­lice posts will be­gin this week­end, while work on po­lice post fa­cil­i­ties at the Tarou­ba In­ter­change and Ed­die Hart Sa­van­nah re­mains on track de­spite con­cerns raised over the process used to award con­tracts.

Speak­ing to re­porters at Tarou­ba In­ter­change yes­ter­day, Alexan­der said the Gov­ern­ment would not al­low ob­jec­tions to the ini­tia­tive to de­rail its plan to in­crease po­lice vis­i­bil­i­ty and strength­en crime pre­ven­tion.

He con­firmed that three po­lice posts were cur­rent­ly in the pipeline, with one or two more ex­pect­ed to be con­struct­ed over the week­end.

Ques­tioned about the cost of con­struct­ing each po­lice post, Alexan­der de­clined to pro­vide a fig­ure.

“As I said be­fore, we’re not dis­cussing that just yet. But at the end of the day, no cost is too much in pro­tec­tion of its peo­ple,” he said. Alexan­der ar­gued that in­vest­ment in polic­ing and crime pre­ven­tion was nec­es­sary even as the Gov­ern­ment re­ports a de­cline in crime.

He said the po­lice posts would pro­vide con­ti­nu­ity in com­mu­ni­ties and de­ter crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty by in­creas­ing the vis­i­ble pres­ence of law en­force­ment.

He likened the ini­tia­tive to keep­ing se­cu­ri­ty mea­sures in place even when there was no im­me­di­ate threat.

The Op­po­si­tion has been ques­tion­ing the process used to award con­tracts for the po­lice posts, with ques­tions al­so be­ing raised about the cost and pro­cure­ment arrange­ments.

But Alexan­der de­fend­ed the Gov­ern­ment’s ap­proach, ac­cus­ing the Op­po­si­tion of op­pos­ing crime-fight­ing ini­tia­tives.

“Every time that we bring an ini­tia­tive that seems to have to be put for­ward in terms of crime pre­ven­tion and an­ti-crime ini­tia­tives, they op­pose, op­pose this, op­pose that,” he said.

A to­tal of 30 po­lice posts are be­ing built na­tion­wide, many of which are ex­pect­ed to be lo­cat­ed at ma­jor junc­tions and trans­port in­ter­changes.

In south Trinidad, lo­ca­tions iden­ti­fied in­clude the Tarou­ba Fly­over, Williamsville Junc­tion, Guayagua­yare near In­di­an Bay, the junc­tion of Rochard Road and Pe­nal Rock Road, and the junc­tion of Rochard Dou­glas Road and Cu­mu­to Road.

Oth­er pro­posed sites in­clude the in­ter­sec­tion of the South­ern Main Road, La Ro­maine and South Trunk Road near Paria Suites, Ica­cos Junc­tion, Mal­gretoute Junc­tion in Princes Town, Gol­con­da In­ter­change and Tor­rib Road, Tabaquite.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the scene, con­struc­tion was al­ready un­der­way at Tarou­ba, where a con­crete foun­da­tion has been laid.

At Gol­con­da, work­ers were re­cent­ly seen clear­ing grass at the site ear­marked for a po­lice post, while the Williamsville lo­ca­tion re­mained un­de­vel­oped.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has al­so de­fend­ed the ini­tia­tive, say­ing her Gov­ern­ment would not be dis­tract­ed or de­terred from es­tab­lish­ing po­lice posts in­tend­ed to make com­mu­ni­ties safer.

In a post on her X plat­form, Per­sad-Bisses­sar, de­fend­ing the ini­tia­tive, ques­tioned why any­one would op­pose po­lice posts in­tend­ed to im­prove pub­lic safe­ty.

“Why would any­one try to stop a po­lice post meant to make our com­mu­ni­ties safer?” she said.

“My Gov­ern­ment will not be dis­tract­ed or de­terred. The safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty of the peo­ple will al­ways come first.”