Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar says consideration is to be given in Parliament to approving special powers of arrest to soldiers to assist in the fight against crime.
She made the disclosure during a news briefing at her St Clair, Port-of- Spain, office yesterday. The Prime Minister said the need for such powers was expressed at a recent meeting of the National Security Council, which she chaired. She admitted that there existed "legal challenges" to arresting citizens in joint police/army patrols. "So we may consider and have for debate in the Parliament whether we do give them (Defence Force) some of the powers of police officers so that they could better fight crime," she said.
"I think it would be very important...It doesn't make sense you just have them there and they are decorative (and) for cosmetic purposes. "They lack the legal power (authority) to do certain things in the fight against crime." She said parliamentary reform would be given top priority under her Government. "That is an agenda that we will be pushing very aggressively," the Prime Minister stressed. She said the parliamentary committees would be chaired by Independent senators. Persad-Bissessar said such a system would result in a more democratic balance in the committees.
Legislation dealing with the existence of the Special Anti-Crime Unit of T&T was also expected to be brought to Parliament in due course, she added. Persad-Bissessar said the election promise to increase the Old Age Pension to $3,000 per month is likely to be implemented by September 1. Meanwhile, leader of government business in the Senate Subhas Panday–soon to be appointed Minister in the Ministry of National Security–said he was prepared for his new job. Panday is to be appointed minister tomorrow afternoon. Asked what he intended to bring to the ministry, Panday said he "hoped to think outside the box" to implement measures that may not require huge expenditure to fight crime.
He said one such plan that might be implemented was using information technology to fight violent crimes. He said all the identifying marks of suspected criminals should not only be supplied to the police but put on a yet to be established crime Web site. Panday said by that mechanism, "any member of the public could identify criminals. "He said all citizens should be used as "policemen" and assist the police. He added that this would not cost much money.