An­drea Perez-Sobers

Se­nior Re­porter

an­drea.perez-sobers

@guardian.co.tt

For­mer se­nior su­per­in­ten­dent Roger Alexan­der has been of­fi­cial­ly an­nounced as the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress can­di­date for Tu­na­puna in the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion.

There was spec­u­la­tion last Thurs­day when he re­signed from the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice af­ter serv­ing 30 years.

Mak­ing a grand en­trance last night in San­gre Grande dur­ing the UNC’s cam­paign meet­ing, Alexan­der told the crowd that every­one asked him why he jumped in­to pol­i­tics. He ex­plained, “You lis­ten to dif­fer­ent lead­ers, and you choose the one that is aligned with your vi­sion and your dreams of a bet­ter T&T.” 

He paint­ed a sce­nario of why the po­lice ser­vice is strapped to re­spond to home in­va­sions.

“If, while you are home, some men at­tack you at your home, you can do noth­ing but wait and hope that you sur­vive an­oth­er minute. And be­cause my col­leagues want to come, want to re­spond, and can­not be­cause we do not have the re­sources avail­able to us. That must change. Tech­nol­o­gy for na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty has im­proved dras­ti­cal­ly over some time. But yet, we are still us­ing tech­nol­o­gy from 1812 to 1946,” Alexan­der out­lined.

Alexan­der said when the UNC was in pow­er un­der Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, “1,000 tax-free dol­lars” was giv­en to law en­force­ment of­fi­cers. 

He in­di­cat­ed that many things are be­ing said about him and this move, but while that is be­ing said, a teacher and stu­dent can­not go to school in peace, as they are afraid of the crim­i­nal el­e­ments.

“You have to lock up your house at 3:47 pm to avoid dra­ma. The time has come for change. I want to see a safer T&T. I want the po­lice of­fi­cers to do their jobs with the right equip­ment. I want to see mem­bers of the im­mi­gra­tion de­part­ment and fire ser­vice do their jobs with the right equip­ment,” Alexan­der said.

He as­sured that once he is elect­ed, Tu­na­puna busi­ness own­ers will feel safe and no longer have to pay any mon­ey de­mand­ed by the crim­i­nal el­e­ments.

Alexan­der, who host­ed the TTPS Be­yond the Tape crime show, was or­dered not to ap­pear on the pro­gramme from Feb­ru­ary 2024.

A month be­fore that di­rec­tive, he was sent on a two-year va­ca­tion leave. That move gen­er­at­ed crit­i­cism giv­en T&T’s crime sit­u­a­tion. How­ev­er, he re­turned and was sta­tioned at the An­ti-Ex­tor­tion Unit.

Alexan­der shot in­to the lime­light when he be­gan ap­pear­ing on Crime Watch with Ian Al­leyne.