Businesswoman: Probe cops for abuse of power

Singh, managing director of Amsure Trinidad and Tobago Ltd, yesterday told members of the media that on January 11, at about 9.45 am, two members of the Police Service walked into her Piarco Plaza office armed with guns, wearing bulletproof vests, and demanded to speak to her.

“They came here because a complaint was made against the organisation with reference to a staff (member) not being paid on time...

There was the option to discuss, in a very amicable way, whatever the concern was, but no,” she explained.

Singh said she was not on the compound at the time, however two of her employees called her “frantically” saying that one of the officers threatened to arrest Singh and take her to the police station if she did not pay $500 supposedly owed to the former employee.

Singh said the former employee was hired in November 2016, and resigned this month, and that the money was being withheld until an external accountant reviewed several issues.

However, she said the problem was that one of the officers, who she later learned was a friend of the former employee and not attached to the Piarco or Arouca districts, intimidated and traumatised her staff, and used his status as a police officer to bully others in an industrial matter.

Singh stressed that organisations have measures and channels to deal with such matters and said it was simply wrong for a police officer to “ambush” her employees without knowing the whole story.

“Their motto is to protect and serve, not to intimidate using your police authority conveniently to get whatever need be. This is not a criminal matter. I think for all businesses across the nation, this has to be stopped,” said Singh.

“If it is they can go out of their jurisdiction to come here to try to demand $500, what else can they do? This has to stop. There is supposed to be some sort of law that protects my civil and human rights, which was violated,” she continued.

Singh said although she did not make a report with the TT Police Service, she reported the matter to the Police Complaints Authority.