Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Fitzger­ald Hinds urged 49 new­ly grad­u­at­ed par­lia­ment tran­sit po­lice of­fi­cers to al­ways re­mem­ber that they are part of the na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty sys­tem that en­sures the safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty of this coun­try.

Dur­ing the grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny held in San Fer­nan­do, he told the grad­u­ates that part of their re­spon­si­bil­i­ty was not to on­ly car­ry out their du­ties with pro­fes­sion­al­ism but to al­ways treat the or­ga­ni­za­tion that they pro­tect and serve with the great­est re­spect.

The fol­low­ing is a press re­lease from the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty: 

Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, the Ho­n­ourable Fitzger­ald Hinds M.P. has urged new Po­lice Of­fi­cers at­tached to the Par­lia­ment and Tran­sit Po­lice Units, “to al­ways re­mem­ber that you are now, mem­bers of this coun­try’s na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty sys­tem, that, though con­sist­ing of var­i­ous parts, work in tan­dem with each oth­er so as to en­sure the safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

Min­is­ter Hinds gave the ad­vice as he de­liv­ered the fea­ture ad­dress at the grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny of Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice Of­fi­cers for the Par­lia­men­tary and Tran­sit Po­lice Units, Batch 1 of 2022, held at the South­ern Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts, Todd Street, San Fer­nan­do on Wednes­day June 15, 2022. The Min­is­ter wel­comed the forty-nine new grad­u­ates and thanked them for their com­mit­ment to serve the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go, in hav­ing cho­sen the pro­fes­sion of a po­lice of­fi­cer.

Ad­dress­ing the new Par­lia­men­tary po­lice grad­u­ates, Min­is­ter Hinds said that part of their re­spon­si­bil­i­ty was not to on­ly car­ry out their du­ties with pro­fes­sion­al­ism, but to al­ways treat the or­ga­ni­za­tion that they pro­tect and serve, with the great­est re­spect. Min­is­ter Hinds said: “Twen­ty (20) of you will join the ranks of the Par­lia­men­tary Po­lice Unit.

To you, I say that the Par­lia­ment is one the great­est sym­bols of democ­ra­cy in this coun­try and your job is so im­por­tant to the preser­va­tion of that democ­ra­cy and to pro­vide pro­tec­tion for all who work and car­ry out the peo­ple’s busi­ness there. That makes your job a very sig­nif­i­cant

He added: “the Par­lia­ment is a meet­ing place for all the rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the peo­ple and it falls on you to keep the en­tire­ty of the Par­lia­ment safe and se­cure from all in­trud­ers.

That is, the com­plex it­self which in­cludes the Red House and an­cil­lary fa­cil­i­ties, its as­sets, the staff and vis­i­tors and of course the Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment.” Min­is­ter Hinds al­so ad­dressed the new grad­u­ates at­tached to the Tran­sit Po­lice Unit.

He said: “Twen­ty-nine (29) of you will be in­duct­ed in­to the Tran­sit Po­lice Unit, Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, and you will pro­vide in­creased and ded­i­cat­ed en­force­ment along the Pri­or­i­ty Bus Route, City Gate, Route One Maxi Taxi Stand on In­de­pen­dence Square South, and the Ari­ma Maxi Taxi Stand.

You must keep the Pri­or­i­ty Bus Route free from unau­tho­rised use and abuse, so that emer­gen­cies and pri­or­i­ty ve­hi­cles can have free and safe pas­sage. At times you may have to en­gage crim­i­nal el­e­ments who may wish to en­ter and egress this thor­ough­fare to avoid and at­tempt to es­cape pur­suit from oth­er arms of Law En­force­ment.”

Min­is­ter Hinds con­grat­u­lat­ed the grad­u­ates on the suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of their in­duc­tion train­ing and wel­comed them in­to the ser­vice and by ex­ten­sion the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty fam­i­ly. He then took the op­por­tu­ni­ty to thank all the men and women of the De­fence and Pro­tec­tive Ser­vices for their ded­i­ca­tion to du­ty and self­less ser­vice to the peo­ple.

Al­so present at the cer­e­mo­ny were Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary, Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, Ms. Nata­ki At­i­ba-Dilchan; Clerk of the Sen­ate, Par­lia­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go, Mr. Bri­an Cae­sar and Di­rec­tor of the Of­fice of Law En­force­ment Pol­i­cy (OLEP), Ms. Gale Charles.