Successful prosecutions in ‘B’ Division remain a challenge – Commander Joseph

A MAJOR bugbear to policing in ‘B’ Division is the challenge in upping the rate of successful prosecutions when certain matters end up in the court.

This is according to Divisional Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police Brian Joseph during an exclusive interview with the Guyana Chronicle in the division last week.

Commander Joseph said that the divisional administration, and by extension the force’s administration, has been dealing with police ranks who fail to show up in court and offer evidence or testify. However, they are usually disciplined for such cases of absenteeism and any reports of their misconduct are also investigated and dealt with.

UPHILL TASK
However when it comes to the court and prosecutions, the police are facing an uphill task, according to Joseph. He pointed out that whenever repeat offenders gain their pretrial liberty they often repeat the very offences for which they were initially charged or in some cases they commit even more serious crimes.

The commander said that the division has several experienced prosecutors who have been practicing for years and in almost each case they have all been practicing for more than five years. The most junior prosecutor in the division is Corporal Joseph, he pointed out.

It was mentioned that recently a man was charged for two counts of robbery under arms and then again robbery with aggravation and he was placed before the court. On the second appearance, the accused was placed on $75,000 bail by the magistrate.

In that case the accused was arrested after public-spirited citizens had caught the man red handed with booty from his crime and this was stated in the court but bail was still granted by the magistrate.

LIVES ON THE LINE
“Although we do not have no control over the courts and how the magistrate comes to his or her decisions, actions or development such as the one I mentioned do not encourage the young policemen and women who put their lives on the line to bring these people to justice,” Joseph noted.

In that case also, the suspect was at the time of the robbery on bail for two other offences which he had allegedly committed, the commander told this newspaper.

However, these observations by the commander of ‘A’ Division is supported by almost all senior police officers who lament this fact whenever they speak of the relationship between the court and the police.

In some cases the police are accused of presenting weak arguments but when one takes into consideration the quality and years of service of the prosecutors who preside in some of these cases, there is often the contention about the need to repeal a number of laws which are now in the law books regarding certain offences.

Despite that challenge, however, the senior police officer said that they will continue to work with their ranks who never cease to be exposed to several training programmes in the areas of successful prosecution.

He added also that whenever there are instances where prosecutors or their supervisors realise that there may be some issues that are causing their matters to fall through, they are pulled in and given further training to address those deficiencies immediately.

Training for the prosecutors in the division is also conducted by the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Joseph said.

In the meantime, Commander Joseph did not hesitate to commend his ranks who, according him, have been doing a very good job at prosecuting matters in the court and they have been receiving added guidance from Deputy Commander Marlon Chapman who is a trained and experienced investigator.

He has been guiding the ranks in preparing cases, especially when it comes to matters pertaining to serious offences.