(Trinidad Express) National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds said the Government has no intention of calling a state of emergency in response to the escalation of crime, especially murders in Trinidad and Tobago.
And he also put to rest calls for him to devise a crime plan, saying it is not his job.
In the last few days, there have been repeated calls for a state of emergency to be imposed to deal with the rise in home invasions and murders.
But speaking with the media, yesterday, following the opening of the head office for the Committee for the Repatriation of Nationals from Overseas, Hinds said one was implemented in 2011.
He added it was later revealed that the then-commissioner of police, Dwayne Gibbs, was unaware there would have been a state of emergency to deal with crime and criminality, which was his main mandate as commissioner of police.
“That would not happen with us. We are far more astute and far more respectful of our roles and responsibilities. So, to ask me whether I would establish or cause to be established a state of emergency is a little bit far-flung and outside of my remit. “We would take our timing from law enforcement on matters of that nature,” Hinds said.
The National Security Minister also addressed questions about him coming up with a crime plan.
He said a Government minister does not generate or create any crime plan.
“That is a matter for the police commissioner, that is a matter for the Defence Force that supports the police in dealing with these issues. I’ve always said I know exactly what my responsibilities as a minister of Government are, and it does not include me creating no crime plan.
“So, when I hear, particularly some, purported to know better even in the Parliament calling on me to create a crime plan, I wonder,” Hinds said.
He noted that if he had a crime plan he would have arrested all those talking “a lot of nonsense”, beginning with members of the Opposition. “I’m aware that the police have plans and strategies along with the Defence Force, which they are operating.
“My job is to provide them with the policy directions of the people of Trinidad and Tobago, through the Government, and to ensure that they understand these policies particularly clearly.
“In addition, my job involves providing all of the resources that they need in order to carry out their respective mandates, and that we do in accordance with our budgetary allocations and certainly in accordance with what the Government of Trinidad and Tobago could afford at any particular point in time.”
The National Security Minister also dismissed suggestions for a gun amnesty. “I think not, for me personally. But again, that wouldn’t be my individual call. I’m just one member of the Government, and again, these kinds of things are usually done on the advice of the police commissioner.”
