20 March, 2006 - Published 13:41 GMT
British police for Trinidad streets
The decision of Trinidad and Tobago to bring in British policemen to help fight violent crime has received a lukewarm response from local rank and file officers.
Prime Minister Patrick Manning had included the British officers in a police reform package presented to Parliament on Wednesday.
Manning said: "We are now making final arrangements to receive in Trinidad and Tobago, towards the end of the month of April, 39 officers from Scotland Yard."
The officers are to be armed and will have the power to investigate crimes and make arrests.
They will be hired for between two and three years by the Ministry of National Security.
Corporal Cedric Neptune, the president of the police service association, which represents rank and file officers, said he was concerned that importing the British officers would convey a lack of confidence in the local police.
Success
Nevertheless, he said the association needed far more information than that given by prime minister Manning about the imminent deployment.
Mr Neptune wants to know how the UK officers would be operating in relation to the local police, what ranks they will hold and who will they report to.
Mr Manning said the success of consulting work by Scotland Yard officials and U.S. federal agents in December convinced him that hiring full-time officers from abroad would help fight crime.
The Trinidad government is alarmed by rising crime figures.
For the first 75 days of the year, there have been 82 murders, according to police.
Last year, the authorities reported record 389 killings and more than 60 kidnappings for ransom in 2005 - about double the number of abductions in 2004.
