Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said there were “too many criminals in the police service” and the Government was willing to pay extra to have officers who were incorruptible.
Speaking during a public meeting at Harris Promenade, San Fernando on Saturday night, Rowley said he held talks with National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds recently and they agreed to the creation of “vetted units” within arms of national security, assisted by the United States, and for which those officers could be paid more.
He told PNM party during the meeting: “I was in a meeting with the Minister of National Security and our experts and the American experts, where the American government has undertaken – and we have agreed to accept it, to create within our police service, what we call vetted units. Vetted units, meaning groups of special police officers, men and women who are vetted to ensure that their integrity is intact.”
“When you’re going after the non-police criminals, they have their friends in the police service, to tip them off. And we have to have vetted units.”
“The ones that have integrity that you want, you’ve got to protect them. You got to increase their numbers because we are now in a life and death struggle with the criminals in this country,” the Prime Minister said.
“I’m telling this country that we are prepared to pay extra to police officers in those vetted units if they will maintain their integrity and help us to root out the criminals in the police service, in the customs, in immigration and in the Parliament.”