Police say security at Port of Halifax needs improvement Last Updated Wed Jan 23 22:01:19 2002 HALIFAX - Police in Nova Scotia say they're concerned about the high rate of people with criminal records who work at the Port of Halifax. The RCMP and Halifax Regional Police force testified before the Senate committee on national defence and security in Halifax on Wednesday. They said security at the port has to be improved. The RCMP ran a criminal check on the 500 unionized people working at the Port of Halifax. Chief Supt. Ian Atkins says 37 per cent have criminal records. Atkins says he's not implying the International Longshoremen's Association is doing anything illegal. But he says people with criminal records are more likely to commit more crimes. "It is a significant component of the economic infrastructure of Canada and obviously as a result of Sept. 11, has some national security issues as well." The Longshoremen's Association says it's being unfairly targeted. It says there hasn't been one case in the past 10 years of workers pilfering goods from containers. If the police are concerned about security, it says they should be looking to the crews of the ships. "These people (crews) make about $800 a month, work about 60 hours a week, and half the time in the middle of the winter they don't have enough money to put socks on their feet," said spokesman Gerald Murphy. Murphy says the union is all in favour of increased security at the port, as long as measures target the right problem. The port is getting new x-ray equipment and the container terminals are putting a new policy in place requiring all employees to have photo IDs. Written by CBC News Online staff The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site: Roj (Roger James) *************************************************** Trinbago site: http://www.tntisland.com ICQ: ICQ # 15836110 ICQ Pager: mailto:15836110@pager.icq.com escape email #!1 mailto:ejames@escape.ca yahoo email #2: mailto:triniroj@yahoo.com Yahoo Pager: triniroj Caribbean Brass & Soca Connection Group on Yahoo: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/caribsocabrass Caribbean Brass & Soca Connection Club Website http://www.tntisland.com/caribbeansocabrassconnection/ ******************************************************* Steel Expressions Orch http://www.escape.ca/~ejames/se/ email #1: mailto:steelexpressions@yahoo.com email #2: mailto:steelexpressions@home.com ******************************************************* The Trinbago Site of the Week: (Revellers Mas Band) http://www.revellers.com/ (Trini Revellers Mas Band) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://195.224.187.36/ *********************************************************