- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - Aujourd'hui 05:35

Lutchmedial: Police at airports a good move

Former director general of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Ramesh Lutchmedial said the establishment of police tactical and canine units at the Piarco International Airport was a good move and long overdue. Speaking to Newsday via phone on June 25, he said he had been calling for a similar initiative since the recent armed robbery and drive-by shooting which led to a murder. “In my recent columns in the Newsday, I called for round-the-clock, 24/7 police tactical units, canine units. It’s an excellent move by the Ministry of Homeland Security and the Commissioner of Police and it’s something that should have been done years ago. “The next thing for them to do is to re-activate the Airport Security Council. I mentioned the Airport Security Act and who the members of that committee should be.” These tactical units, along with a permanent presence of plain-clothed police officers at the airport, were announced by Police Commissioner Allister Guevarro on June 23. Airports Authority general manager Hayden Newton said he would not give details of how the police units would be integrated with the existing security arrangements at the facility. “The resources of the police and the resources of the Airports Authority are combined to make sure security is in hand. “Airport security procedures are handled by our security officers. The police are doing policing and their normal security functions. Any entity that has to do work in terms of the airport, whether it be immigration, customs, police, they will be briefed in terms of airport security requirements.” An operator at the airport said the extra security was welcome, although there were still some spaces to be filled. They called for more patrols and said security should have been increased before this, especially after the shooting happened. Attempts to reach out to other operators were not successful. In his column on May 29, Lutchmedial said the shooting on April 17 raised serious questions about the effectiveness of security systems at TT’s international airports as required by the Trinidad and Tobago Civil [(No.8) Aviation Security] Regulations (TTCARS No.8). He said TT, as a signatory to the Chicago Convention, had a serious treaty obligation to comply with the standards of the ICAO Annex 17 - Aviation Security. The annex says all countries are to ensure that landside areas at airports are identified and that security measures are established to mitigate the risk of and to prevent possible acts of unlawful interference in accordance with risk assessments carried out by the relevant entities. Lutchmedial said Annex 17 - Security also requires airports to ensure co-ordination of landside security measures among relevant departments and other agencies of the state to identify appropriate responsibilities for landside security identified in its National Civil Aviation Security Programme. He said TTCARS No 8 define “landside” as the area of an airport and buildings to which both travelling passengers and the non-travelling public have unrestricted access. Lutchmedial said in his June 12 column that the Airports Authority Act Section 4 established a security committee consisting of a chairman appointed by the chairman of the National Security Council, the chairman of the AATT, the Chief of Defence Staff, the Commanding Officer of the Regiment; the Commissioner of Police, the Chief Fire Officer and a senior officer appointed by the chairman of the National Security Council. “The security committee is responsible for the maintenance of security at all TT airports and is accountable directly to the Prime Minister and in his/her absence to the minister responsible for national security. “The security committee appears to be dormant, but must now discharge its statutory duties to provide strategic management and co-ordination of TT airports' security systems in accordance with the law and associated regulations.” The post Lutchmedial: Police at airports a good move appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.