Po­lice of­fi­cers and pri­vate se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cials are lob­by­ing for the roll­out of the Ea­gle Eye Project in Barataria, say­ing the CCTV ini­tia­tive has al­ready proven ef­fec­tive in Tu­na­puna and could bol­ster ef­forts to stem crime in the area.

The project, dis­cussed at a Po­lice Town Hall meet­ing at the Barataria Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre on Thurs­day, pro­vides re­al-time video feeds to po­lice com­mand cen­tres. Of­fi­cers cred­it­ed the sys­tem with im­prov­ing re­sponse times and help­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tors by­pass hes­i­tant eye­wit­ness­es by giv­ing di­rect ac­cess to footage.

The pro­gramme is a col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice and pri­vate se­cu­ri­ty firm Ul­ti­mate So­lu­tions. It was in­tro­duced in Tu­na­puna last year in re­sponse to a surge in vi­o­lent crime and ex­tor­tion.