Hart: Police in crime

Some police officers are involved in serious crimes, claimed Junior Minister of Culture, Eddie Hart, debating the Police Reform Bills Thursday evening in the House of Representatives. He made the point to illustrate the need for reform, as he urged the Opposition to vote to help ensure the Police Service got proper management. Apparently lamenting the poor record of the Police Complaints Authority which one of the bills sought to boost, Hart said: “People file thousands of complaints against the police and get no redress.” People, he said, knew the Commissioner of Police was powerless. “The Police Service Commission (PSC) is too detached from the Police Service to be effective.”

Likening the PSC’s relationship to the Police Service to that of an absent parent who merely shipped barrels to their child, he said: “Children need management in the house. You need to be there in the house.” He then alleged some police were involved in crime. “Drug dens are being set up next to police stations.” Hart said there were incidents where police vehicles were used to transport illicit drugs. The Tunapuna MP recalled: “I know of a store owner who was robbed three times in one month, and on one occasion the getaway car used was owned by a police man.” Criminals were even going into churches to steal, he added. “Six or seven young men are walking down the street each with a pump action shotgun, looking like a small army.”  He said the country needed action now.”

“We have to hear the voices crying in the ghetto. How do we make the Commissioner of Police a modern manager, and make a police authority a modern management unit?” He said that just as sport and the steelband movement had produced good managers, the country must do likewise. “Management is the key,” he said. At that Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday quipped across the parliamentary floor: “Let’s bring down the management of Luton to run this country.”