TT security needs more

So said Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley during one his radio i95 appearances. He was lamenting over the Boardwalk shooting and calling it an act of terrorism. He said, although he thought he might offend some people, we had to accept, given the kind of results we were getting, that our policing apparatus was not up to the task and that we had to make changes and do things differently to get results. He added while there was considerable security apparatus the job of securing the country appeared to be beyond what was in place.

Scary hearing that coming from a prime minister but more so when he said that while his government was taking responsibility (good to know), the bottom line was the country had to get proper border control, non-corrupted staff, people who were prepared to work and a population that shared information with the police. So really the bottom line is we going nowhere because none of these things are in place and that is really frightening.

According to our next Minister of National Security, Fitzgerald Hinds, the Police Service, the Defence Force and all others involved in the fight against crime need to understand that we have a major crisis on our hands and need to behave as though there is a crisis. Not sure whether he was referring to the Head of the National Security Council, the Minister of National Security or the new PNM government he is a part of, but crisis it is and the bottom line is that changes have to be made to get results.

So Prime Minister the ball is in your court and may I suggest the first change to make is to replace Dillon with Hinds – you have nothing to lose.

Ricardo Lijertwood via e-mail