The Police Complaints Authority (PCA) has launched an independent investigation into a video showing a uniformed police officer allegedly accepting a $100 bribe for marijuana.This was yesterday confirmed by PCA Director David West.
West said: “Yes. We just signed off on it today and I don’t want to say much.” He said he could not divulge much because he did not want to pre-empt the investigators.
The video, which is over one-minute, shows the driver of the vehicle, who was dressed in a red jersey, driving onto a major road and calling out to the officer. The man making the secretly-recorded video said it was a “social experiment for T&T to see how police officers does be taking bribe.”
When he stopped his vehicle he narrated that he was going to give $100 to the officer and ask him for weed.Moments after the officer, who was dressed in uniform, walked up to the driver’s side and spoke to the driver. The driver asked him for weed, to which the officer replied: “How much you want?”
The driver then told the officer that he needed a pound. The officer said that he could not have gotten that amount but added that he could have only provided a quarter of an ounce but would have to go to his home to get it for him.
In a bid to clear his name, in a 30-second video, a man who identified himself as the officer depicted in the video, admitted that he had a few drinks and did not hear the man in the video say weed and added that he thought he said “seeds.”
“I am the Police with the video that gone viral. I just want to clear my name right? I had a couple drinks and did not hear him say weed, I thought it was seed. I plant grass. I plant all different kind of trees and thing and I thought it was seed he say. I am clearing my name. It was $100 for seeds. He really try to set me up dey.”
The Police Service did not provide an update on the investigation yesterday. On Sunday, TTPS’s head of corporate communication, Ellen Lewis said the Professional Standards Bureau had been detailed to investigate the case.ASP Micheal Jackman, on Sunday, described the video as “troubling and “a source of great concern to the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service.”