6,000 COP cases on hold

MORE THAN 6,000 complaints filed against police officers are collecting dust at the offices of the Police Complaints Division because a severe staff shortage is making it impossible to deal swiftly with the allegations.

The complaints date back to 1998. This means that members of the public who made reports against police officers seven years ago might be in for a long wait before their complaints are addressed.

Among the serious complaints against police officers gathering dust at the Division’s offices are allegations of police brutality, claims of drugs and weapons being planted on persons, discreditable conduct, failure to attend court, insubordination, reporting late for duty and absence from duty without leave.

Senior officers told Sunday Newsday the situation reached crisis levels last week when it was discovered that with thousands of long-outstanding reports still to be investigated, there are only about 20 officers currently reporting for duty at the Division. This is because several officers are on various types of leave, insiders said. ACP Dennis Graham is in charge of the Division.

Dr Stephen Mastrofsky, who was hired by Government to carry out a transformation of the police service, was briefed about the manpower shortage at the Division and the backlog of reports. He has recommended that officers from all divisions be called in to assist with the backlog.

However, this solution has already been rejected by police officers who say there is a manpower shortage throughout the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service and it is virtually impossible to re-deploy officers to assist the Division with its backlog of cases.

The problem was first raised by National Security Minister Martin Joseph last year, during his contribution to the Budget debate. Joseph had said then that the Division only had about 15 police officers on duty and that his Ministry was working with the Police Service Commission to address the manpower problem.

One of the proposals being considered at that time was the re-hiring of retired police officers to help with the backlog of complaints against police officers. However, nothing has been said about the matter since then and officers at the Division are becoming increasingly disgruntled.

A spokesman for officers at the Division said despite repeated requests for increased manpower, nothing has been done. To make matters worse, they say they are being overworked and underpaid since allowances for plain clothes, commuted allowances and travelling are not being paid.

“We are fed up and we have decided that if no one in authority seems to be interested in addressing our concerns, we will work accordingly,” an angry officer told Sunday Newsday.

Police Commissioner Trevor Paul said as far as he was aware the Division was recently re-organised and 40 additional officers were added to the staff.

He said based on the additional resources given to the Division, he expects the backlog of files to be dealt with expeditiously.