00:00With the country currently under a state of emergency, debate is intensifying over whether draconian measures are replacing effective daily
00:09policing.
00:10While statistics show a decrease in homicides, former National Security Minister and Police Commissioner Gary Griffith argues that relying on
00:18emergency powers is a strategic failure.
00:21But the fact is, is that right for the last two years, we are seeing two less widows every three
00:27days in comparison to the non-SOE period.
00:29Having said that, my point is, is that I have never seen the state of emergency should be used as
00:35a crime fighting tool.
00:37If it is that you put the proper policies, systems, programs, units, technology, there's no need for a state of
00:42emergency.
00:42A central flashpoint to this security debate is the deployment of preventative detention orders, or PDOs, which allow individuals to
00:51be detained without charge.
00:53Griffith warns that placing this power in political hands, rather than with independent law enforcement, poses a severe threat to
01:01civil liberties.
01:02My take on it is that the commission of police should be the sole person to trigger the PDO, and
01:08that is not the case right now.
01:10I mean, a circle usually with intelligence, and they're not, yeah, and even refuse to state what agency it came
01:15from, which is what he's doing now.
01:16And somebody could lose their right to freedom without evidence.
01:21The former top cop argues that his concentration of authority is not an isolated incident.
01:27Instead, he maintains that it is a symptom of a deeply flawed constitutional structure,
01:32which permits political figures to exert unchecked control over independent democratic institutions.
01:40Well, yeah, our constitution is a disgrace.
01:44The whole constitution is laid in one where one person has sole authority to direct and select every single person
01:50in the country.
01:51The prime minister selects who he or she wants as the president.
01:54You can say what you want.
01:55You can call it electoral college, what you want.
01:57They have the majority.
01:59The president selects and handpicks the chief justice, the commissioner of police, the chief of defense staff, the director of
02:05the SSA, state boards, every single person.
02:08Beyond high-level constitutional gripes, Griffith insists that critical, specialized units designed to protect the most vulnerable of citizens have
02:18been quietly dismantled,
02:19leaving the public exposed to rising domestic and gender-based violence.
02:24That gender-based violence unit dealt with the problems as it pertained to domestic violence, abuse to children, abuse to
02:31elderly, domestic disputes.
02:33The persons from the New York Police Department came to Trinidad and Tobago.
02:37They trained police officers to deal with the confidentiality and the sensitivity of this matter.
02:42It pegged back those perpetrators who are just bullies.
02:45And you have shut that down.
02:47And if a woman is raped or a child beaten, you have to go to a police station.
02:50With the government defending its emergency measures as necessary to curb the bloodshed,
02:56the debate over how to secure TNT's future remains deeply polarized.
03:01Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
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