Posing as policemen

WHEN Ingrid Medford thought she was dealing with policemen, she was in fact being confronted by bandits. The two men, wearing dark blue police pants and shirts, complemented by bullet-proof vests bearing the words POLICE on the front and back, came into Medford's Gas Station at Chaguanas on Sunday morning asking to see the manager. Their subterfuge worked perfectly as none of the workers suspected they were criminals in disguise. Medford left her office, where she was checking weekend sales, to meet the two "visitors," asking what she could do for them. The two impersonators asked about her security, indicating that they were "checking out" the area. However, something about their conduct and their purpose must have made Medford suspicious because she asked them for their idenfication badges.

And that was when the police impersonators revealed their true colours. One of them pulled out a gun and struck Medford on her neck. The two ordered her back into the office where they took close to $50,000 lying on her desk. At the same time, a third bandit, in plain clothes, ordered workers to lie on the floor, jumped over the counter and stole a quantity of money from two cash registers. On the same page in which we reported this robbery yesterday, we also also carried the story of a 27-year-old man who is charged with possession of a police and army kit together with three rounds of .38 ammunition. The Police found the police and army uniforms when they raided a house in the Diego Martin hills on Friday night. These two episodes reveal the cunning and deviousness of the criminals now preying on innocent, law-abiding citizens of our country.

The fact that bandits can obtain police uniforms and actually pose as policemen to allay suspicion and gain easy access to business places must present not only a new kind of challenge to the country's crime fighters but also a new kind of concern and anxiety for the business community and, indeed, the general public. On the one hand, Police authorities must seek to determine how criminals are able to obtain uniforms which should be confined strictly to members of the service. We understand that where the police stores were once controlled by policemen and uniform items were stamped with the officer’s number, the stores are now managed by civilians and the practice of stamping no longer obtains. The system here may need reviewing and its security tightening.

On the other hand, how are members of the business community and public to react to police officers entering their premises and homes? How are they to know whether their visitors are genuine law enforcement officers or bandits in disguise? As Sunday's robbery of Medford's Gas Station shows, when a request for identification is made, it can be too late, the bandits would by then have gained entry without suspicion and, once inside, use the element of surprise to carry out their criminal mission. We have even heard reports that some kidnappers have used police uniforms to evade suspicion while grabbing their victims. Because of this trick with bogus uniforms, bona fide police officers should be immediately willing to display their identification badges on entering any private place or even have them on display when they are on investigations which involve such visits or conducting searches in public. They should be prepared to do everything to maintain the confidence of law-abiding citizens.