Port-of-Spain (Trinidad Express):

If the top brass of Trinidad's Defence Force has its way, soldiers will be given powers of arrest to help tackle rising crime.

Chief of Defence Staff, Edmund Dillon, told the Sunday Express that a committee headed by Justice Ulric Cross is currently reviewing the Defence Force Act, and in 2008, if all goes well, that act will be amended to give the army more powers, which will include the power of arrest.

The 4,000-strong army com-prises the regiment, coastguard and air guard.

At present, members of the defence force cannot make arrests. They work jointly with the police force and are positioned in crime hot-spot areas, but the arrests are made by the police officers.

Dillon, in an exclusive interview at a cocktail reception held at the defence force headquarters in Chaguaramas last Friday, said Trinidad's crime situation had become grave and "there is work to be done and we are looking at that."

It was only recently, at a post-Cabinet press conference at Whitehall, Port of Spain, that National Security Minister Martin Joseph said the strength of the police force was not up to full capacity.

Greater impact

"Right now we are reviewing the Defence Act. There is a committee looking at the act and part of that is how we reconfigure ourselves to treat with a new security environ-ment but, more specifically, to treat with the crime situation in Trinidad and Tobago," said Dillon.

"We are assisting the police but we have to see what greater impact we can make.

"In reviewing the Defence Force Act, we will see what legal interventions we can use to allow us to get deeper involved in the treatment of crime," the army chief said.

When questioned on whether he felt the defence force had the capability to help curb the crime epidemic that gripped the country, Dillon responded "definitely".