Pub­lic in­for­ma­tion of­fi­cer of the Po­lice Ser­vice Sgt Wayne Mys­tar is call­ing on the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty and oth­er or­gan­i­sa­tions to sup­port po­lice youth clubs. Mys­tar was speak­ing at yes­ter­day's dai­ly news brief­ing at the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing, Port-of-Spain. "We are mak­ing an ap­peal to the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty to make an in­vest­ment in the youths. "The fund­ing is nec­es­sary and we keep see­ing that ed­u­ca­tion is the key in the fight (against crime)." He said: "We have the po­lice youth clubs. When you have com­mu­ni­ties you have need to have a lot of fund­ing, so this is a good op­por­tu­ni­ty to ask the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty to make a con­tri­bu­tion to a young­ster who may be head­ing in a wrong di­rec­tion," he said.

Mys­tar said there were con­cerns over the crime sit­u­a­tion and homi­cides. "We are great­ly con­cerned and we are de­ploy­ing re­sources to make sure we have a high po­lice pres­ence in the hotspot ar­eas," he said. He al­so de­nied that of­fi­cers who were as­signed un­der the 21st-cen­tu­ry polic­ing ini­tia­tive were dis­en­chant­ed for var­i­ous rea­sons. "That is not the case. We may have prob­lems and it is not with the whole 21st-cen­tu­ry polic­ing ini­tia­tive. "This is not the case. It is work­ing and when you are faced with chal­lenges it is dy­nam­ic and each di­vi­sion has a dif­fer­ent chal­lenge," Mys­tar said. In ad­di­tion, he said, the Cy­ber Unit was in­ves­ti­gat­ing the re­cent hack­ing of the Par­lia­ment Web site. "The Cy­ber Unit is high­ly trained and man­dat­ed to make sure it doesn't hap­pen to (the Po­lice Ser­vice Web site). They have launched an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the hack­ing of the Par­lia­ment Web site."