An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

Gov­ern­ment should treat spend­ing on na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty not as an ex­pense, but as an in­vest­ment in pro­tect­ing the coun­try’s peo­ple, econ­o­my, bor­ders and sov­er­eign­ty, says re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty ex­pert Dr Garvin Heer­ah.

Heer­ah is urg­ing of­fi­cials to use the up­com­ing bud­get to move be­yond re­ac­tive polic­ing and place greater em­pha­sis on in­tel­li­gence, tech­nol­o­gy, bor­der man­age­ment, hu­man cap­i­tal and crime pre­ven­tion.

In his wish list, ti­tled “What We Should Hope to See in the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Com­po­nent of the Up­com­ing Bud­get,” Heer­ah out­lined sev­er­al ar­eas where he be­lieves greater fund­ing should be di­rect­ed.

He called for sig­nif­i­cant in­vest­ment in air law en­force­ment as he in­sist­ed there was a need to strength­en the abil­i­ty to see, de­tect, track and re­spond from the air.

“This should in­clude in­vest­ment in air­craft, he­li­copters, drones, trained per­son­nel, main­te­nance and the in­te­gra­tion of aer­i­al sur­veil­lance with the TTPS, Coast Guard, Cus­toms and oth­er agen­cies,” he said.

Heer­ah, the for­mer head of the Na­tion­al Op­er­a­tions Cen­tre (NOC), al­so called for greater in­vest­ment in bor­der con­trol man­age­ment.

“Bor­der se­cu­ri­ty must be­come a na­tion­al sys­tem rather than a col­lec­tion of in­di­vid­ual agency re­spon­si­bil­i­ties,” he said.

He said in­vest­ment should in­clude tech­nol­o­gy, bio­met­ric sys­tems, in­tel­li­gence data­bas­es, mar­itime sur­veil­lance, pas­sen­ger/car­go screen­ing, com­mu­ni­ca­tions and stronger mon­i­tor­ing of le­git­i­mate and il­le­git­i­mate move­ments across the coun­try’s bor­ders.

“Crim­i­nal net­works ex­ploit gaps be­tween ju­ris­dic­tions and agen­cies. Ef­fec­tive bor­der man­age­ment is there­fore fun­da­men­tal to com­bat­ing drugs, firearms, hu­man traf­fick­ing, il­le­gal mi­gra­tion and oth­er transna­tion­al crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty,” he ex­plained.

Rec­om­mend­ing a per­ma­nent In­ter-Agency Bor­der Con­trol Man­age­ment Task Force, bring­ing to­geth­er the TTPS, Coast Guard, De­fence Force, Im­mi­gra­tion, Cus­toms, Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency and oth­er rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers, Heer­ah said, “We need one co­or­di­nat­ed op­er­a­tional pic­ture of what is hap­pen­ing at our bor­ders.”

The ob­jec­tive, he point­ed out, should be in­tel­li­gence shar­ing, joint plan­ning, joint op­er­a­tions and mea­sur­able ac­count­abil­i­ty, rather than agen­cies op­er­at­ing in par­al­lel.

Re­gard­ing the hu­man re­source chal­lenges with­in all sec­tors of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty, Heer­ah called for the bud­get to ad­dress the peo­ple be­hind the na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty sys­tem.

He said this equat­ed to ex­am­in­ing man­pow­er and va­can­cies, re­cruit­ment and de­ploy­ment, pro­mo­tions and ca­reer pro­gres­sion, re­ten­tion, train­ing and pro­fes­sion­al de­vel­op­ment, wel­fare and work­ing con­di­tions, lead­er­ship de­vel­op­ment, and morale and recog­ni­tion.

“You can­not build an ef­fec­tive mod­ern na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty sole­ly by pur­chas­ing ve­hi­cles, weapons and tech­nol­o­gy. Peo­ple are the ca­pa­bil­i­ty.”

He added, “Na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty can­not be sus­tained through en­force­ment alone.

“We must cre­ate al­ter­na­tives for young peo­ple be­fore crim­i­nal net­works cre­ate al­ter­na­tives for them.

“Ex­ist­ing pub­lic in­fra­struc­ture could po­ten­tial­ly be con­vert­ed in­to pro­duc­tive com­mu­ni­ty as­sets rather than al­low­ing valu­able fa­cil­i­ties to de­te­ri­o­rate.”

In the area of cy­ber­se­cu­ri­ty and cy­ber polic­ing, Heer­ah called for pri­or­i­ty to be paid to na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty, with re­sources be­ing pumped in­to cy­ber polic­ing, dig­i­tal foren­sics, cy­ber in­tel­li­gence and pro­tec­tion of crit­i­cal na­tion­al in­fra­struc­ture.

“Crim­i­nal­i­ty is in­creas­ing­ly mov­ing from the phys­i­cal en­vi­ron­ment in­to the dig­i­tal en­vi­ron­ment.

“Fraud, ex­tor­tion, threats, iden­ti­ty theft, fi­nan­cial crime and at­tacks against sys­tems re­quire spe­cialised ca­pa­bil­i­ties. Tra­di­tion­al polic­ing meth­ods alone will not be suf­fi­cient."

In the area of strength­en­ing mar­itime se­cu­ri­ty and coastal sur­veil­lance, he said in­vest­ment should con­tin­ue in mar­itime do­main aware­ness, in­clud­ing radar, sen­sors, pa­trol ca­pa­bil­i­ty, com­mu­ni­ca­tions, in­tel­li­gence and in­ter­op­er­abil­i­ty be­tween the Coast Guard, TTPS and oth­er bor­der agen­cies.

Last­ly, Heer­ah said greater em­pha­sis should be placed on pre­ven­tion and so­cial sta­bil­i­sa­tion, with a de­fined bud­getary al­lo­ca­tion for crime pre­ven­tion and com­mu­ni­ty sta­bil­i­sa­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly in high-risk com­mu­ni­ties.

This, he said, should in­volve schools, youth pro­grammes, com­mu­ni­ty or­gan­i­sa­tions, so­cial ser­vices, faith-based or­gan­i­sa­tions and law en­force­ment.

“En­force­ment may sup­press a prob­lem, but pre­ven­tion helps re­duce the con­di­tions that al­low crim­i­nal­i­ty to re­gen­er­ate. The ob­jec­tive should be stronger com­mu­ni­ties, stronger fam­i­lies and greater re­silience.”

Heer­ah con­clud­ed, “Na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty is not just about putting more boots on the ground.

“It is about hav­ing the right peo­ple, the right in­tel­li­gence, the right tech­nol­o­gy, the right leg­is­la­tion, the right in­ter-agency co­or­di­na­tion and, most im­por­tant­ly, the right strat­e­gy.”