Cit­i­zens are be­ing told that they can ex­pect a faster re­sponse time and greater vis­i­bil­i­ty from the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) with the de­ploy­ment of 200 new mo­tor­cy­cles from the Peo­ple’s Re­pub­lic of Chi­na.

Chi­na is one of sev­er­al na­tions in­clud­ing Cana­da, Aus­tralia, New Zealand and the Unit­ed States, that is part­ner­ing with Trinidad and To­ba­go to pro­vide train­ing, tech­nol­o­gy, ca­pac­i­ty build­ing and oth­er types of sup­port, the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter said.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley de­liv­ered the fea­ture ad­dress at to­day’s hand­ing over cer­e­mo­ny at the TTPS Acad­e­my in St James.

Motorcycles given to the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service by the People's Republic of China, at the Police Academy in St James on Wednesday. Photo courtesy the Office of the Prime Minister.

He said crime fight­ing and the re­sponse to the crim­i­nal el­e­ment is a mul­ti­fac­eted as­sign­ment and that there is no one of­fice that has the so­lu­tion.

“There are a se­ries of things that need to be done all at once and on a sus­tained ba­sis if safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty are to be at the lev­el that the pop­u­la­tion re­quires and to bring about the com­fort that the pop­u­la­tion needs,” Dr Row­ley said.

“We see these bikes not as dec­o­ra­tion, not as traf­fic guiders for high of­fi­cials, we see these bikes in the po­lice ser­vice as the abil­i­ty of the of­fi­cers to move quick­ly through com­mu­ni­ties on an on­go­ing ba­sis bring­ing about a re­sponse time which will be sig­nif­i­cant­ly im­proved.”

National Security Minister Stuart Young looks at one of the motorcycles given to the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service by the People's Republic of China, at the Police Academy in St James on Wednesday. Photo courtesy the Office of the Prime Minister.

Fif­teen of­fi­cers re­ceived train­ing in Chi­na on the mo­tor­cy­cles which are equipped with GPS and video tech­nol­o­gy.

Dr Row­ley thanked Chi­na for the do­na­tion and im­plored the TTPS prop­er­ly main­tain the equip­ment.

The mo­tor­cy­cles were hand­ed over to the TTPS giv­ing ef­fect to the pro­vi­sion of Gratis Aid to Trinidad and To­ba­go by the Peo­ple’s Re­pub­lic of Chi­na. Un­der the pro­to­col, the Peo­ple’s Re­pub­lic of Chi­na will pro­vide a range of goods and ser­vices to T&T, for use by T&T as they ex­e­cute their man­date to Aid Civ­il Pow­er and law en­force­ment.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley greets Police Commissioner Gary Griffith at a ceremony to hand over motorcycles given to the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service by the People's Republic of China, at the Police Academy in St James on Wednesday. Photo courtesy the Office of the Prime Minister.

Dr Row­ley was joined by Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Stu­art Young, Am­bas­sador to the Peo­ple’s Re­pub­lic of Chi­na, Song Yu­min and Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, Gary Grif­fith.