Deal with rogue cops

In the past week, it is the courts which have highlighted this issue. On Thursday, Madam Justice Joan Charles called on the DPP to take action against an officer of the Organised Crime and Narcotics Unit (OCNU). Justice Charles dismissed drug trafficking charges brought against three men when she found that the officer had lied to the court in giving evidence. Then, on Friday, Justice Herbert Volney targeted unknown rogue cops who stole millions of dollars worth of cocaine from a court exhibit. Justice Volney also dismissed charges against the accused in this case, and warned the DPP to "exercise prudence" in prosecuting persons charged with cocaine possession.

But the matter cannot be allowed to rest there. The ball is now squarely in the hands of National Security Minister Martin Joseph and DPP Geoffrey Henderson.

We will not waste ink on any more calls on Commissioner Trevor Paul, who has been spectacular in his inaction against errant officers. The politicians may already have been trying to do something, by setting up the Special Anti-Crime Unit of Trinidad and Tobago (SAUTT) as an elite force presumably made up of officers of proven integrity. But the legality of the SAUTT is itself in question, so that too is a form of corruption. Additionally, since power tends to corrupt, there is no guarantee that the SAUTT officers will not themselves become part of the problem.

It is often said that only a minority in the Police Service are corrupt, and this is no doubt true. But it is also said in tandem that the majority of officers are hardworking individuals of integrity, and that is not necessarily true. It is far more likely that the majority of officers, as in most organisations, just do their job and ignore the acts of corruption and inefficiency they see happening around them. Quite possibly, many officers would like to fight such acts, but cannot do so because the mechanisms do not exist in the Police Service.

This is where the politicians can take action. In the cases cited above, prosecution should, in theory, be relatively easy. Justice Charles has already cited the particular evidence which shows that the officer was lying. In the case of the missing cocaine, there should be records which would reveal who had access to the court exhibit. Yet all this is true only on paper — in practice, prosecuting the police officers will be well-nigh impossible.

Yet it is paper-pushers who can bring about a transformation in the Service. Earlier this year, this newspaper called on the Government to set up a department in the Police Service to deal with bureaucratic matters. This would not only free more police officers for actual law enforcement, but also provide the kind of records that can be used to identify corrupt officers. The Government also needs to change the law to make it easier to dismiss inefficient officers, whether such authority would lie in the hands of the CoP or a non-politically appointed Police Services Commission or even a strengthened Police Complaints Division.

Unless such basics are put in place, the Manning administration can continue to buy all the high-tech equipment in the world. In the final analysis, it is the police officers who must use the equipment and, unless those officers are reliable, technology will always fail to arrest crime.