Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams says the T&T Police Service (TTPS) did all it could in the search for Shannon Banfield.
It would be unfair to claim otherwise, Williams said. Banfield, 20, was reported missing by her mother Sherry-Ann Lopez on Monday.
Lopez said her last conversation with her daughter was on Monday around 4 pm when Banfield said she was leaving her workplace at Republic Bank’s Independence Square branch and was on her way to I AM & Company Limited on Charlotte Street to shop. On Thursday, Banfield’s body was found at I AM.
Speaking to the media following the Christmas on the Hill Christmas party for kids at Sogren Trace in Laventille, Williams said the TTPS followed all the necessary steps to find Banfield.
“The Police Service would have done what was necessary in addressing that investigation in a timely manner,” Williams said.
Williams said as soon as the police got information on Banfield’s disappearance they acted.
He said officers visited Charlotte Street in Port-of-Spain and tried to trace Banfield’s whereabouts.
Williams questioned why I AM & Company Limited was the only business place along Charlotte Street that did not cooperate with detectives.
“A private entity has rights under the law. If you don’t cooperate and the police has reasonable suspicion then the police can move one step further and take out a warrant.
“At the point in time the police had no reasonable suspicion. They had suspicion that there is a missing girl and something could have happened with her.
“So there is suspicion, whether that missing girl would have been in I AM at the time, police did not have reasonable suspicion to so point.
“So therefore taking out a warrant was not an option at that point in time,” he said.
Williams said there was nothing different the police could have done.
“There is nothing wrong with the policy (of dealing with missing people) so the police would have done what they are supposed to do.
“Instantly you receive a report of a missing person you investigate, you don’t wait, you investigate and that is exactly what the police would have done.
“In investigating you have information that the young lady would have been on a particular street,” Williams said.
“There is nothing different that the police could have done in that particular instance if they had more information which would have allowed them reasonable suspicion then they could have gone and get a warrant and search and if they had searched and not find the body then there would have been the question of the quality of the search but at that point in time, the police would have done what they were supposed to do and it is unfair to say that they police did not do it,” he said.