Shar­lene Ram­per­sad

New­ly-ap­point­ed Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, Fitzger­ald Hinds, has said that cit­i­zens who do not abide by the new­ly-an­nounced COVID-19 reg­u­la­tions will be made to “feel it in their pock­ets”.

He held a meet­ing with Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith to en­sure spe­cial teams of po­lice of­fi­cers are formed to en­sure COVID-19 reg­u­la­tions are en­forced.

Speak­ing at the Min­istry of Health press con­fer­ence yes­ter­day morn­ing, Min­is­ter Hinds said, “I give you the as­sur­ance that in meet­ing with the Com­mis­sion­er and the Po­lice di­vi­sion­al lead­ers in a very short while, I will be shar­ing with them the re­quests of the team to en­sure that ac­tion is tak­en over the next three weeks—the life of these new reg­u­la­tions—to en­sure that the laws of Trinidad and To­ba­go in this re­gard are prop­er­ly fol­lowed and en­forced.”

He said he ex­pects spe­cial teams from each of the nine po­lice di­vi­sions will be put to­geth­er to mon­i­tor and en­force pub­lic com­pli­ance of all the COVID-19 reg­u­la­tions.

Min­is­ter Hinds said he will ask those teams to give him dai­ly up­dates on their ac­tions to en­sure en­force­ment.

“I will be ask­ing them to re­port to this team on a dai­ly ba­sis, their ac­tiv­i­ty in terms of the en­force­ment of those reg­u­la­tions, where peo­ple will be made to feel it in their pock­ets if they prac­tice the un­think­ing be­hav­iour of dis­re­gard­ing the se­cu­ri­ty and the safe­ty of all of us,” he said.

Con­tact­ed hours lat­er Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Gary Grif­fith said he would say more about the re­quest for a spe­cial team in each di­vi­sion, at a news con­fer­ence sched­uled for to­day.