Sto­ries by Jensen La Vende

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Roger Alexan­der will meet with act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Ju­nior Ben­jamin to­day, af­ter promis­ing to do all he can to en­sure the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) has the re­sources it needs to tack­le crime.

Speak­ing at the TTPS an­nu­al Sports and Fam­i­ly Day at the Po­lice Acad­e­my, St James, on Sat­ur­day, Alexan­der, in his de­but pub­lic event, said there was no re­al ad­just­ment from his life as a po­lice of­fi­cer to that of a min­is­ter. He said the main pri­or­i­ty will be to meet with the ex­ec­u­tive of the po­lice ser­vice.

Asked what are some of the re­sources he thinks the po­lice ser­vice needs, the re­tired se­nior su­per­in­ten­dent said: “I will have my opin­ion, but I want it to come di­rect­ly from the per­sons in­volved, which will make it much eas­i­er to treat with.”

Dur­ing the cam­paign trail Alexan­der, who is al­so the MP for Tu­na­puna, echoed the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress’ plan to re­duce crime with­in their first six months in of­fice. Asked about this, he re­it­er­at­ed that the plans dis­cussed on a Gov­ern­ment lev­el will be kept a se­cret un­til he meets with Ben­jamin and his ex­ec­u­tive and all oth­er stake­hold­ers.

“Let me meet with all agen­cies. I have my ideas, but let me meet with them so these ideas can be in sync with each oth­er in or­der to en­sure progress,” Alexan­der said.

He said there was some de­lay in di­vid­ing the for­mer Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty in­to his Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty and the De­fence Min­istry, which is led by Wayne Sturge.

“I have to meet my com­mis­sion­er soon and we will ad­dress that as soon as we have that com­mu­ni­ca­tion,” he said about meet­ing with the po­lice ex­ec­u­tive.

Af­ter a week as a Gov­ern­ment min­is­ter, Alexan­der said he was pleas­ant­ly sur­prised by the new tasks.

“It was good,” he said about the first week, adding “you didn’t know things un­til you ac­tu­al­ly ob­served things.”

He said the switch from po­lice to politi­cian was not a ma­jor ad­just­ment for him.

“It’s not re­al­ly a big ad­just­ment per se be­cause I con­tin­ue to serve the peo­ple. I left serv­ing the peo­ple and I con­tin­ue to serve the peo­ple. So, it is not a big ad­just­ment per se. I just want to see the po­lice ser­vice win, do well and win. My in­ten­tion is to do as much as I could to en­sure vic­to­ry.”

Alexan­der said he will not re­ly on his ti­tle to be an hounourable par­lia­men­tar­i­an but will bring ho­n­our to the Par­lia­ment.

“Per­sons asked me from time to time how I will op­er­ate in Par­lia­ment and these things, and I of­ten tell per­sons, it’s the man that brings ho­n­our to the chair and not the chair stand­ing alone. And I in­tend to bring ho­n­our to the chair.”

Mean­while, act­ing CoP Ben­jamin said he had no is­sues work­ing with his one-time sub­or­di­nate and pledged the sup­port of the po­lice to Alexan­der.

“We re­al­ly want to wish him all the best. I think he has joined the ranks of many no­ble of­fi­cers. He has stood out and we just want to wish him all the best. We are here to sup­port him as the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice.”