Don’t tolerate police nonsense

ACTING Assistant Commissioner of Police (Community Policing) Kathleen Weekes advised  residents of Bon Air Gardens, Arouca, to report discourteous and non-responding officers and also told residents that once a report is made at any station, the officers must respond. Residents were also advised to respond honestly when officers visit their homes to investigate the background of applicants wishing to join the Police Service. “Should you not report officers who are discourteous or delay in responding to a report, they become entrenched in the service and are then hard to remove. “As to reports made at a station outside your district, once a report is made at any station, it must be attended by officers of that station. No officer has the right to say wrong station and tell you ring another.”

The ACP was responding to queries by residents of Old Arima Road, Arouca, at a police Northern Division town meeting Thursday night at the Bon Air High School. At the meeting, residents made claims of encountering “hoggish” officers when they made reports of rape, robbery or carjackings. Officers don’t visit, take a statement or investigate the crime scene,” they said. Acting Supt Eugene Bastien, in charge of discipline at the Northern Division, immediately produced the telephone numbers for Snr Supt Rodvan Bastien (in charge of the division) and acting ACP Weekes, asking anyone with related complaints to contact any or all of the numbers, including the number for his office, which he also produced. Several residents of Bon Air Gardens in Arouca, who have been hit by the increase in crime over the last two years, supported the views expressed and called for more patrols, improved street lighting, neighbourhood watch groups, a police post, and training programmes for the youths of the area ACP Gilbert Reyes, in charge of Northern and Eastern divisions, pointed out that most of the crimes were committed by young people who were known in the area.

He called on residents to be honest and come together and form a partnership to fight crime. Snr Supt Bastien noted that most of the complaints at the meeting were similar to those at other town meetings he had attended. He promised to have a meeting with officers immediately and implement some of the suggestions, such as regular patrols in poorly lit areas and abandoned booths in the area where bandits hide. Principal of the newly built Bon Air High School, Jennifer Cox-Williams, promised to include the school in any programme with the police to eradicate crime in the area. Snr Supt Bastien promised to be the first officer to address the students whenever she calls.