BUDGET STATEMENT 2014
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SUSTAINING GROWTH, SECURING PROSPERITY
guns in view of the carnage on our
nation’s roads and highways;
• building capacity within law enforcement.
The Government will continue to increase
staff levels and training to boost detection
rates. We will recruit an additional 1,000
regular police officers; we will also recruit
5,000 Special Reserve Police with 1,500
expected to be trained by the end of 2013; we
are training officers in scientific methods for
solving crime, inevidence-basedpolicing and
Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) techniques.
Coupled with the computerising of police
charge rooms and the deployment of GPS
technology in police vehicles, the approach
to law enforcement will be accurate, reliable
and efficient;
• border strengthening. In fiscal 2013, the
Government acquired the final 2 of 4
AW139 multi-mission helicopters to address
safety and illicit drug trafficking. They are
able to conduct a range of air operations
in Trinidad and Tobago and in the wider
Caribbean Region. In the coming year, the
Government will build upon these efforts
by focussing on securing our nation’s ports
as targets for arson, sabotage, vandalism,
piracy, tampering with cargo, unauthorised
access, smuggling of weapons and drug
trafficking.
Mr. Speaker, the Government has continued to
roll out its own CCTV network to bolster existing
capacity. Two hundred and forty-five CCTV
cameras have been installed at Beetham, Sea
Lots, Dundonald Street, Aranguez, El Socorro,
Morvant, San Juan and Santa Cruz. Additionally,
118 cameras have been installed at various
locations in Tobago. As at August 2013, 873
CCTV cameras have been installed in East Port-
of-Spain and in Tobago. Installation is scheduled
to continue in the Central, Southern andWestern
Divisions.
• community outreach. The Government will
continue to spearhead programmes such
Mr. Speaker, why should a country of 1,980
square miles, or 5,128 square kilometers with a
population of 1.3 million spend on average $5.0
billion annually or 3.3 percent of our GDP on
national security? This money could be spent
on new hospitals, schools and roads. As far as I
am aware, Trinidad and Tobago is not at war with
another sovereign state.
In this context, the Government will continue to
adopt a zero-tolerance approach to crime. Gone
are the days when our young people can use the
excuse that the system is working against them.
To whom much is given, much is expected, and
this Government will ensure that our streets are
safe fromthe scourge of violent crime. In fulfilling
this mandate, the Government has adopted
a multi-dimensional approach with emphasis
on operational and preventive interventions.
These initiatives entail short, medium and long-
termmeasures.
Mr. Speaker, the short-term measures will
include:
• increased police presence generally as
well as in targeted areas. This will be ac-
complished initially through the continua-
tion of joint army-police patrols deployed in
hotspots, to target gun-related homicides
throughout these areas; joint army/police
patrols will be intensified in these hotspots
through an initiative labelled Operation
HOPE — Harmony, Opportunity, Peace and
Enforcement — which is ongoing.
• re-introduction of dedicated police highway
patrols. In response to the high number
of vehicular and fatal accidents on the
highways, the Highway Patrol Unit has
been restructured, with the main operation
centres at Freeport, Debe, La Horquetta
and Aranguez. In addition, the Government
will deploy additional officers to highway
patrol duties to man the surveillance
bays, lengthening the reach of the law
and decreasing response time to serious
incidents. We will also introduce radar speed
