Re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty ex­pert Garvin Heer­ah says the in­com­ing Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty must ad­just and counter emerg­ing crim­i­nal threats.

Heer­ah re­spond­ed to Guardian Me­dia's ques­tions via What­sApp fol­low­ing the UNC's coali­tion vic­to­ry in the 2025 gen­er­al elec­tion on Mon­day. He said the change in T&T's lead­er­ship de­mands a “bold and vi­sion­ary” na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty strat­e­gy, with a new vi­sion and re­newed man­date.

Heer­ah ad­vised the new min­is­ter to be­gin by as­sess­ing the op­er­a­tional pre­pared­ness of var­i­ous agen­cies and iden­ti­fy­ing their vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties.

“Cen­tral to this trans­for­ma­tion must be the es­tab­lish­ment of a Strate­gic Ad­vi­so­ry Team—an elite co­hort of mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary ex­perts in in­tel­li­gence, law en­force­ment, de­fence, cri­sis com­mu­ni­ca­tion, cy­ber re­silience and me­dia man­age­ment. This team will serve as a brain trust, guid­ing the Min­is­ter through da­ta-dri­ven, mis­sion-fo­cused de­ci­sion-mak­ing.”

He al­so urged the min­is­ter to pri­ori­tise the wel­fare and morale of pro­tec­tive ser­vices per­son­nel by ad­dress­ing their hous­ing, fi­nan­cial, men­tal, and phys­i­cal health needs.

“Re­build­ing morale, restor­ing pride and re­in­forc­ing the val­ue of ser­vice are es­sen­tial for sus­tained in­sti­tu­tion­al per­for­mance.”

Com­ment­ing on promis­es by both the PNM and the UNC to cre­ate an “elite crime-fight­ing unit,” Heer­ah said such a body must have clear­ly de­fined op­er­a­tional ob­jec­tives and re­al­is­tic Key Per­for­mance In­di­ca­tors (KPIs) to mea­sure its ef­fec­tive­ness.