Deosaran: Probe cops’ bank accounts

INDEPENDENT Senator, Professor Ramesh Deosaran, yesterday demanded that police officers’ bank accounts be investigated to find out if any member of the Police Service is involved in kidnapping or any other type of crime in Trinidad and Tobago.

Deosaran also called upon Government to immediately establish a $10 million safety fund to encourage persons with information about criminal activities to come forward. Speaking during debate on the Anti-Kidnapping Bill in the Senate yesterday, Deosaran said it was not his intention to demoralise the Police Service but “it is proper that we call a spade a spade otherwise how will we embark on the mission of reconstruction”. “I think it’s time to take a concerted and sustained attempt to root out the indiscipline and corruption in the Police Service.  Whether you have your new Police Management Bill or not, I must tell you it’s festering in the Police Service. Every district you go to people tell you about police officers. If the population should be the jury in this matter, they would pronounce the police guilty several times. The country is mad with this particular phenomenon,” he declared.

Turning to face National Security Minister Howard Chin Lee, Deosaran said: “ We have to send a strong message to police officers that the Government means business in terms of police integrity and vigilant, fair investigations. Check on their bank accounts. You should really check up on police bank accounts. It is time. Not only give them drug tests but you got to be serious. This is one way you can express that seriousness. Let there be an accounting of police finances, bank accounts.” The Senator added that this was something Government and Opposition should agree on and chastised both for demonstrating “political irresponsibility” on the issue of crime. “Political irresponsibility creates a sad legacy,” Deosaran lamented. He told the Opposition that notwithstanding the adversarial nature of local politics, providing support for the Bill demonstrated “good politics and good governance” on the UNC’s part. The Senator also suggested the creation of  local fingerprint and DNA databases, a specialised network of informers, street captains and community police, special prosecutors and “swift trials” and use of The Information Channel for community safety as other anti-crime measures which could be explored.

Deosaran also claimed the country’s crime statistics were wrong and the police should make them public. “The police in this country treat the crime statistic in this country as if it’s their personal, private property. These are figures that affect the community. Everybody is in the dark until the police is ready, halfway in the year, if at all so early, to disclose through a press conference as if it’s a secret that they are announcing to the community that is being victimised,” he stated. The senator called for a specialised crime reporting unit that would allow the quick retrieval of data. Deosaran got support on the issue of police reform from Government Senator Danny Montano who said the O’Dowd Report clearly showed the “magnitude of the rot and decay” within the structure of the Police Service. Montano accused the UNC of trying to “torpedo” the Bill’s passage by refusing to lend support to the clauses which require Opposition support.