AS a good citizen, concerned about the deteriorating security situation in my country and concerned for my right to safety and security, when the Prime Minister promised that all issues related to national security would be dealt with at his media conference on Tuesday, I listened attentively.

Sadly, I heard a great deal about what the 2017 police manpower audit report said, but very little about what has been actually done to address the issues, and recommendations going on seven years later.

Well, I did learn that the present CoP (Commissioner of Police) was a member of that Cabinet-appointed committee. Was that why the Government used its majority in the Lower House to appoint her as CoP?

I also learned that the PM, back in 2006, understood how the bipartisan Constitution amendments to the management of the Police Service created a disaster for the service.

But the PM campaigned in 2015 to get into the office of PM with a manifesto crime plan that told us that appointing a CoP under the same dysfunctional management arrangement was the most critical element of his plan to deal with crime, which had already become a scourge against the population.

On Tuesday, he reminded us that his first measure was tweaking the dysfunctional system to get a CoP appointed.

Decrying ad hominem politicking, the PM then launched into his now habitual tirade against Gary Griffith, against the Opposition Leader and the whole Opposition, but not a word about the woeful 13% detection rate for murders, and the worse conviction rate.

Not a word about the incessantly increasing tolls in ‘police-involved’ and extrajudicial police killings. Not a word about bringing the annual murder toll to anywhere close to 200 or less that has been exceeded since 2003.

He attacked the disciplinary process in the Police Service but failed to mention, or analyse with statistics, whether it had improved or deteriorated since that power has been removed from the PolSC (Police Service Commission) and given to the CoP alone for all ranks below deputy CoP by the same 2006 amendments that he correctly criticised.

The PM again used this opportunity to berate the media and media workers and boast about what he sees as his astute, responsible and effective leadership.

He added no new information about his recent discussions with the US FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) and CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), which he put in the context of international organised criminals operating in T&T and making the internal security situation worse.

Nor did he give any details about how the partnership with a National Guard Unit in Delaware (which he called police today) benefits our country’s national security situation or addresses wanton murderous criminality that our citizens are subjected to.

I don’t know about other citizens, but I received no assurance or reassurance from the PM’s marathon session of politicking with national security issues and offering nothing by way of guarantee for our right to safety and security.

Clyde Weatherhead