Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der says he has a “ten-point” crime plan for 2026.

The min­is­ter told mem­bers of the me­dia that he al­so has a strat­e­gy to en­sure that po­lice of­fi­cers are not burnt out in the com­ing year.

Speak­ing fol­low­ing the launch of the com­mence­ment of the pro­cure­ment phase for the open­ing of ex­pres­sions of in­ter­est for the Gov­ern­ment’s Re­vi­tal­i­sa­tion Blue­print yes­ter­day, Alexan­der sought to un­der­score that the cur­rent State of Emer­gency (SoE) is not the Gov­ern­ment’s so­lu­tion to crime.

While Alexan­der did not re­veal his crime plan, he did agree with Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s ad­mis­sion that the Gov­ern­ment need­ed to work hard­er to en­sure peo­ple feel a sense of safe­ty.

“There are some per­sons still be­hav­ing in a man­ner where they have lost all re­spect for hu­man and hu­man lives. They have lost re­spect for law and or­der be­cause they have been giv­en that op­por­tu­ni­ty for too long, un­der the guise of ex­cus­es. Now, it gets a lit­tle tough. They are com­plain­ing and com­plain­ing and com­plain­ing and com­plain­ing.”

Alexan­der said he was pained to see the trau­ma the fam­i­ly in Philip­pine en­dured dur­ing a home in­va­sion on Tues­day. Alexan­der said one thought en­tered his mind.

“I need to bring the stand-your-ground laws (sic) soon­er than be­fore. That’s what it is. I need to bring the stand-your-ground laws soon­er than be­fore.”

The Prime Min­is­ter and At­tor­ney Gen­er­al both con­firmed the Home In­va­sion Bill will be com­ing to Par­lia­ment be­fore the end of 2025.

Mean­while, with con­sec­u­tive SoE pe­ri­ods and with the busy Christ­mas and Car­ni­val sea­sons on the hori­zon, Alexan­der was asked if he is con­cerned that of­fi­cers may be over­worked.

How­ev­er, while he said he un­der­stands how they feel, he has a so­lu­tion.

“I was part of that or­gan­i­sa­tion, and a man loves to be paid for his ex­tra work. And when he’s paid, he wants to go on and on and on. And we un­der­stand that. And that is why we’re al­so try­ing to treat with the po­lice ser­vice in terms of their sanc­tion strength. Be­cause if the sanc­tion strength of the po­lice ser­vice is up to par, then there may be no need for the ex­tra over­time that’s be­ing paid now.”

Asked if he wants the SoE ex­tend­ed well in­to 2026, Alexan­der said, “As I said be­fore, it de­pends on how things un­fold. You see, and that’s what we have to work with. We have to work with the tide, you know. When the tide is high, you know what can hap­pen. When the tide is low, you op­er­ate ac­cord­ing­ly.”

Mean­while, Alexan­der laud­ed the Gov­ern­ment’s re­vi­tal­i­sa­tion plan, which in­cludes ma­jor changes for na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty, in­clud­ing re­de­vel­op­ment work for the Car­era Is­land Prison, Port of Spain Prison and Gold­en Grove Prison. There are al­so plans for bor­der se­cu­ri­ty projects in South Trinidad and a Tamana Cen­tre for Jus­tice.

“Back in the day, most of these build­ings that were con­struct­ed were, in fact, con­struct­ed with pop­u­la­tion in mind and all of that. It wasn’t built with pur­pose, but now with the in­clu­sion of all these dif­fer­ent sit­u­a­tions that ex­ist in, not just na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty, but the na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty ap­pa­ra­tus. Take, for in­stance, prison. There was no re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion long ago. There was no court in the pris­ons and all of that. So when we bring these things to­geth­er now, you have to build things with pur­pose.”

He added, “We’re try­ing al­so to sep­a­rate the per­sons who are not hard­line crim­i­nals. So a man for main­te­nance or (some small thing, we can move him away and don’t put him in the same area like those who are hard­line crim­i­nals. So that’s what we’re do­ing. It’s a whole struc­tur­al change.”