SHARLENE RAMPERSAD
Newly appointed Minister of National Security, Fitzgerald Hinds MP, says citizens who do not abide by the newly announced COVID-19 regulations will be made to “feel it in their pockets”.
This, as he announced he will meet 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 on Wednesday morning, Minister Hinds said he would meet later in the day with Griffith and his senior Divisional heads.
“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,” the minister said.
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 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.