President of the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA) Gregory Aboud wants Minister of National Security Jack Warner to use at least some of the money allocated for more police cars and technology to motivate and better remunerate police officers.

Responding to Cabinet's approval of $289 million to the Ministry of National Security in the fight against crime, Aboud said yesterday the acquisition of more technology and more equipment will not have the effect the minister wants.

"What we feel very strongly about, is that the money should be spent on measuring the performance of the officers and remunerating and rewarding those officers that are doing the work, the officers that are getting the arrests and by so doing, other officers will be encouraged to do the same.

"We certainly concur with the idea of regularising the (special reserve police officers) and in particular of giving the SRPs the same increased allowance that has been given to regular police officers. We had in fact lobbied the minister in this regard," he said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Aboud said Port of Spain has been well served by the Central Business Unit which is manned entirely by SRPs who have improved conditions in the downtown city centre.

"On the question of the purchase of additional vehicles and the investment in technology, particularly the cameras, we wish to point out that is not the first time that additional funds have been allocated for such equipment purchases and this is not the first time that money has been spent on technology."

He said because officers in the protective services were not operating in a system of performance measurement, the very good officers who are doing an exceptional job still had to struggle for recognition and promotion while many officers who had only passed the service exams were getting promotions at the same rate.

Aboud said DOMA knew that Warner had good intentions and they recognised that Warner was making a serious attempt to change the course of the country's law enforcement condition.