The National Security Council convened a meeting yesterday, following a weekend where the country recorded over 15 murders.
According to a release from the Office of the Prime Minister, Prime Minister Rowley reportedly “articulated the serious concerns with the incidents of violent crime and the continued use of illegal high powered assault weapons and discussed with the leadership assembled the need for a more proactive, intelligence driven, targeted and robust approach which is focused on those who are known and suspected to be involved in serious criminality.”
In terms of a solution, the Prime Minister, and the heads of the state’s security services, agreed to “the deployment in a coordinated and collaborative manner of sustained joint operations, particularly in areas where there is a known concentration of criminal activity.”
The Prime Minister reportedly told the gathering the government “supported the services and in particular the TTPS in its carrying out of its duties and responsibilities, provided that they are always done within the legal parameters.”
Present at the meeting were the Commissioner of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS), Ms Erla Harewood-Christopher, Deputy Commissioners of Police, Junior Benjamin, Natasha George and Suzette Martin, along with the heads of the ten divisions of the TTPS. Also present was the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Vice Marshall Darryl Daniel, Acting Commissioner of Prisons, Carlos Corraspe and Director of the Strategic Services Agency, Brigadier General (Ret’d) Anthony Phillips-Spencer.
Also present with the Prime Minister were Minister Fitzgerald Hinds, Minister of National Security and Minister Stuart Young, S.C., Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Energy Industries.