–Ramnarine tells ranks

ACTING Commissioner of Police, David Ramnarine has sent ranks a cryptic warning to the effect that all it takes is one bad apple to unravel the enormous gains the Force would have made, particularly in recent years.
“We are toying and think we can get off… We all are involved, high and low; we will all be consumed, not only junior ranks… We cannot do things and think we can get away with it,” he said Tuesday.

The Top Cop, who was at the time addressing the 130 graduates of several police training courses, said he was not about to pull any punches, as it is important for newcomers to know about the downfalls of the Force so that they would not make the same mistakes their predecessors did.

Noting that it seems that every time the Force takes a step forward, they somehow make a corresponding move backwards, the commissioner said a case in point is the two members of the Force who were on Thursday jointly charged for the murder of popular D’Urban Street businessman, 64-year-old Godfrey Scipio, called ‘Sagga’.

Given this turn of events, he feels it’s time they go back to the drawing board to review their strategies and give new direction to their team.
“We need to be unrelenting in the pursuit of wrongdoing, so we will continue with our work,” the Commissioner said, adding:
“But I urge you to look at these things and ensure you avoid them by employing a higher standard in what you do.”

He made the point that although the Force has employed new strategies to rebuild public trust, the revelation that as many as 31 officers have been charged for the year for various crimes, and that 623 complaints were lodged against members of the Force has tended to put a damper on things.

Though evidently not proud of those figures, Commissioner Ramnarine believes the Force can turn things around and repair their image somewhat by continuing to improve on their service to the public, as they adapt to the ever evolving nature of law enforcement.
Among some of the things they plan addressing in the year ahead, he said, is the growing culture to neglect one’s duty, which attracted the most complaints for the year at 321.
He feels that the solution to this particular problem is community-based policing, as it will not only help reduce the number of complaints in this regard, but also help the Force to rebuild public trust.

They have already started to address other areas where there are misdemeanors. For instance, Ramnarine said they have so far stripped the tint off of 75 vehicles owned by policemen, and off 42 vehicles belonging to the Force itself.
And while there are a lot more issues yet to be addressed, the Commissioner is certain that they can do it, especially with additional manpower.

He said that evidence that the Force is growing from strength to strength is the 29 officers who would have recently graduated from the Elementary Prosecutors’ Course; the 32 from the Continuous Professional Development Programme; another 27 from the Special Constabulary Initial Training; and the remaining 42 from the C.I.D Induction Course.
Some of those officers said they are ready to do what is necessary to ensure that they improve the standard of the GPF, especially now that they are better equipped to do so.

They’ve pledged, too, to work with the same degree of efficiency and effectiveness to arrest and prosecute criminals, whether it is a member of the public or fellow police officers.