With Trinidad and Tobago’s bloody crime spree that has seemingly ‘picked out’ the country’s business sector for some of its worst excesses, some of the country’s leading Business Support Organizations (BSO’s), having been targeted by criminals for robberies and killings, would now appear to have signaled their readiness to strengthen their security bona fides by importing security resources from outside the country.
American Chamber (AMCHAM) T&T Chief Executive Officer Nirad Tewarie has been recently quoted in sections of the media in the twin-island Republic as saying that the proliferation of violent crime, much of which has targeted the country’s business houses, now warrants a response that could include the eventuality of government exploring international agreements that allow for highly trained ‘imported’ private security teams to supplement the local police-driven national security apparatus.
While the idea of having foreign security personnel being added to the domestic public security apparatus may be deemed to be unacceptable in some countries, the recommendation that private security be ‘imported’ coming from the Trinidad and Tobago private sector would appear to reflect not just the toll that the protracted crime spree has taken on the business sector but also the extent of the loss of life and property that has occurred in the process of the protracted crime spree ensuing in the twin-island Republic. The idea of the option of importing foreign security was reportedly raised days ago at a University of the West Indies (UWI) St Augustine Crime Symposium.
Tewarie reportedly told the forum that the option had been applied previously when officers from outside the country were granted Special Reserve Police (SRP) status to assist local law enforcement, according to the Trinidad Guardian article. The businessman is reportedly of the view that if the option of utilizing out-of-country security forces is applied it would help suppress gang activity and other criminal elements, providing breathing room for longer-term reforms to take effect.
On the other hand, the pursuit of that option is also likely to raise issues pertaining to national image that might derive from external perceptions that domestic crime has lurched out of the control of the local law enforcement authorities. However, with the crime spree in the CARICOM member country proceeding seemingly unabated, the AMCHAM official claims in the media report that “these times demand thinking outside the box. At Amcham, we are already deeply involved in the soft aspects of crime prevention, but we also recognize the urgency of the current crisis,” the Guardian report quotes the businessman as saying.
The recommendation has come at a time when the view is being touted that up to this time the local Police Force has failed to roll back the crime challenge and when, simultaneously, the country’s female Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher has been removed from office following charges of misconduct. The AMCHAM official has allied his recommendation to other proposals that include a system of regular information-sharing between the country’s Police Force and private security companies.—both at the regional and national levels.
The media report states that a model that is being advocated to protect the Trinidad and Tobago business community is the OSAC (Overseas Security Advisory Council) approach used by United States embassies, which fosters dialogue and intelligence-sharing between law enforcement and private security stakeholders; Tewarie is quoted as saying that “at AMCHAM, we want businesses to thrive—but not at the expense of society. If we share this goal, we must focus on solutions that actively contribute to crime reduction.”
