Ali­cia Llanos

Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Mar­tin Joseph is deny­ing re­cent pub­lic en­gage­ments by Gov­ern­ment min­is­ters are part of cam­paign­ing for the May 24 gen­er­al elec­tion. Joseph was speak­ing yes­ter­day at the sod-turn­ing cer­e­mo­ny to start con­struc­tion of the new St Joseph Po­lice Sta­tion, cor­ner of Aber­crom­by Street and East­ern Main Road, St Joseph. He said the con­struc­tion of the sta­tion and the hand­ing over of 60 ve­hi­cles to the Po­lice Ser­vice re­cent­ly were not cam­paign gim­micks. Joseph said: "All of these plans have been in the mak­ing for the longest while and as a re­sult are now be­com­ing a re­al­i­ty."

He said his min­istry had planned to start con­struc­tion on oth­er po­lice sta­tions in Moru­ga, Man­zanil­la and Char­lot­teville in To­ba­go but could not do so due to the elec­tion. Joseph said the re­build­ing of the St Joseph Po­lice Sta­tion was part of the Po­lice Sta­tion Con­struc­tion Pro­gramme in which 19 sta­tions were card­ed to be re­built. He said to date five sta­tions have been com­plet­ed in Gas­par­il­lo, To­co, Tu­na­puna, Bel­mont and Ma­yaro. Joseph said the sta­tion would be a state-of-the-art fa­cil­i­ty and would house a crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tions de­part­ment, a crim­i­nal records of­fice, a crime and prob­lem analy­sis of­fice, a vic­tim sup­port cen­tre, a homi­cide in­ves­ti­ga­tions unit, a DNA room and bunker for the stor­age of ex­hibits and Gov­ern­ment prop­er­ty.

He said the sta­tion would be equipped to "fa­cil­i­tate on-go­ing de­vel­op­men­tal train­ing and en­sure the health and well-be­ing of the of­fi­cers." Joseph said in 2008 the Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion of T&T (Ude­cott) as­sumed re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the con­struc­tion of po­lice sta­tions. Re­quests for pro­pos­als were made in Oc­to­ber 2008 and con­trac­tors were se­lect­ed in ear­ly 2009. He said ear­li­er this year a de­sign-build con­tract was award­ed to the Shang­hai Con­struc­tion Group. Joseph said con­struc­tion was ex­pect­ed to start next month and said build­ing of new po­lice sta­tions high­light­ed the Gov­ern­ment's com­mit­ment to the re­duc­tion of crime.