Caption: Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Khadijah Ameen
By Alicia Chamely
AN inter-ministerial committee is being assembled to draft a national policy on gated communities, as an extension of the Stand Your Ground policy.
This was announced by Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Khadijah Ameen at Thursday’s post-cabinet press briefing, held at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s.
Ameen said the goal was to create a uniformed policy that made it easier for residential and agricultural communities to secure and gate their neighbourhoods.
She said representatives from the Attorney General’s Office, the Ministry of Homeland Security, the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure, Ministry of Public Utilities, the Trinidad and Tobago Association of Local Government Authorities and others would be present on the committee.
The Minister said, “The committee would further assess the circumstances at it related to home invasions and draft a policy and guidelines for the establishment of gated communities. And this will be presented to the cabinet of Trinidad and Tobago.”
Ameen said allowing communities to gate themselves or take other community-based protective measures against home invasions were tied into the government’s policy of Stand Your Ground.
She said, “This is in keeping with the UNCs position on Stand your Ground Legislation. Stand Your Ground does not only mean owning a gun and being able to defend your home with force. It also means standing your ground and protecting your communities.”
Ameen said the policy would, “examine all legal avenues and approvals required for communities, residents to come together by consensus, the agencies that would be required to give approvals those that will be required to be consulted and to allow those communities to be gated.”
She said the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries would also be represented on the committee, as rural agricultural communities often find themselves victims not only to larceny, but also to hiding or dumping spots for criminals.
Questioned as to whether this policy would extend to squatter settlements, Ameen said the land tenure in those settlements does not fall under the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, therefore advice would need to be sought from the AG as to how to proceed should one of these settlements apply for permission to become gated.
Asked how the policy would handle a possible request from a “hotspot area” where there were known criminal activities, Ameen said, “On this committee we have a representative of the Ministry of Homeland Security, who can advise us.”
Ameen cautioned that the new policy would not be a “free for all, where everybody who wants to drop a gate on their road could do so.”
She emphasised the role of this committee was to draft a policy within the current legal framework, which included restrictions on public roads and access needed by various arms of the regional corporations.
Ameen said once the policy had been drafted by the committee it would be discussed by cabinet, and if changes needed to be made, they would be.
