Municipal Police officers say they are “excited at the opportunity” being given to them by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to take up the mantle of community policing.
This as government moves to scrap the Community Comfort Patrol Unit and send home more than 300 people.
Head of communications at the Ministry of National Security Marcia Hope confirmed to the T&T Guardian that the unit was being scrapped.
She said “it was a financial decision given the economic situation in the country.”
But she made it clear that communities would not be “left unattended.”
Hope said “we don’t intend to leave communities unattended. Measures are being put in place to ensure that communities are monitored and covered.” She said “we are actually working on recruitment to boost the number of municipal police officers.”
Hope would not confirm reports that the CCP Unit was costing the State upwards of $70 million a month, but she confirmed that the job which those officers did would now be passed to the municipal police who would be asked to do community policing and more.
Letters have already been sent to the four companies which provide officers under the CCP indicating that the programme would end on December 31.
Chairman of the Municipal Review Committee Inspector Octave Lewis told the T&T Guardian that “we have been doing community policing for years, but we are never recognised, we are enforcing the law of the land just like the police.”
Municipal police, he said, follow “the same procedure that a police officer follows. We have been doing this for years.” According to Lewis “we are closer to the community than the regular police, and it seems that the Prime Minister has recognised this.”
Lewis said as part of their remit municipal police officers “go to schools and lecture students; if we see students idling on the streets after school liming and not making an effort to go home, we talk to them; we deal with people who have court orders; if someone is murdered and a report comes to us we have to go just like regular police.”
“We are the only group of officers who report to a civilian, the CEO of a corporation. We agree with the Prime Minister that we should fall under the Police Service Commission, we have been saying that for years. We also agree that with the proposal for the officers to fall under the Police Complaints Authority because we also have officers with errant behaviour, that will be good for us,” he said.
Lewis said municipal police are trained just like regular police officers and perform dual functions for the 14 corporations as well as at the national level in the fight against crime, but he said they are paid less than members of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Force, have problems getting vehicles and some officers are not even provided with uniforms.
He said “we want to do our job. We, like the rest of the country, are concerned about escalating crime, but nobody takes us on. We have no regulations and no vehicles to work with. But if a crime happens, we —just like the police— must respond.”
Lewis said “We are enforcing the laws of the land just like the police. Our job specs include protecting and serving the municipality. This includes protecting the assets of the corporations, monitoring and controlling traffic, and responding to reports of crime.”
“However, we are small in numbers,” he said, noting that some corporations only have “two or three officers. That is not enough to do the work we are called upon to do.”
Lewis said officers are also affected by “political dimensions, the corporations don’t want to spend money on the municipal police, so we can’t get the tools we need to do the job.” He said he remains concerned that “Councils determine if we get vehicles. That is not right. There needs to be a separation of powers.”
He said this situation “has a social impact, when we don’t have vehicles and cannot go out to do our jobs and there is an increase in lawlessness.”
Lewis said he was happy that the Prime Minister has recognised the value of the officers to the country and “that he plans to increase our numbers to 1,400 with 100 officers assigned to each of the 14 corporations.”
The proposed change to the reporting line for the Municipal Police is contained in the Local Government Reform document which was formulated following a series of consultations earlier this year. The document forms the basis of legislation which the Prime Minister has indicated will be brought to Parliament in the New Year.
Lewis said “if the law is changed we will be governed by Police Service Regulations and that will be good for us.”