Professor Deosaran accepted into police chiefs’ group

PROF Ramesh Deosaran, director of the UWI Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice, has been made an associate member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). The induction took place last month in the Washington office of the IACP as part of his three-week professional visit to police departments, prisons and juvenile justice centres and community action groups in ten US cities. Prof Deosaran’s acceptance into the IACP was based on his research, publications and training programmes in community policing, crime prevention, juvenile delinquency and policy development in the Caribbean. The visit was at the invitation of the US Department of State. He will now be serving as a resource person to assist the IACP in their international programming.

At the Chicago Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department where former New York Police Chief William Bratton is based, Prof Deosaran examined their community policing programmes, modernised police management and data collection techniques. At the Community Policing Consortium in Washington, Prof Deosaran, who teaches criminology and social psychology at UWI, presented his book The Dynamics of Community Policing to consortium manager Davis Bostrom. At the National Crime Prevention Council in Washington, he made arrangements for graduate students from UWI’s Centre for Criminology to be  attached as interns at the council to share experiences in transforming research into policy action. Prof Deosaran also made presentations to the Crime Prevention Council and other police departments on his own work in community policing, prison recidivism and juvenile delinquency in Trinidad and Tobago.

As another part of his visit, he examined the numerous US statutes and regulations on election financing and discussed with the US Senate Select Committee on Ethics and the US Department of Justice the problems in framing legislation to control political corruption and guide judicial sentencing. As an Independent Senator and Chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee to inquire and report on the Municipal Corporations and Service Commissions in Trinidad and Tobago, Prof Deosaran was also a guest of the US Senate Committee on Crime, Corrections and Victims’ Rights. He observed public sittings of several other Congressional Select Committees.