There will be no criminal charges filed against any member of the T&T Police Service (TTPS) for the March 23 roadblocks which brought the country to a near standstill, acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams said yesterday. However, the senior officers involved may possibly face disciplinary action. He made the comment during the weekly press briefing at Police Headquarters, Port-of-Spain, where he detailed the findings of a probe into the “total day of policing” to journalists.
“The investigations did not reveal any real criminal act committed by any of the officers on that particular day,” Williams said, adding that the probing officer did find “issues around disciplinary breaches.” Williams said a total day of policing, where all the police officers were called out to conduct exercises, was not unusual for the TTPS. He said, however, that there was never a roadblock like the one on March 23.
“Total policing was carried out in 2014. We saw the benefit of it, saw the clear difference in crime numbers. It was an initiative that brought a lot of fruit; 2014 recorded the lowest number of serious crimes because of the total policing days,” he said. He explained that such policing was centered around bringing the full force of the police service out to conduct exercises. It also allowed them to call out off duty officers to assist.
But, he said, the probe into the March 23 activity revealed “facts and gaps” in their policing procedures. One of the gaps identified was communication from the executive level to the lower ranks, he said. “The gap had to do with the implementation at the lowest level. That is the gap we speak about and that is the gap we have to effectively bridge to ensure that whatever you communicate from the level of the executive goes straight to the organisation to be implemented,” he said.
Williams said disciplinary action would not occur right away because there was a process to be taken and the final part of that process would allow him to take action. “I am supposed to deal with discipline at the end of the process. The final process has not reached yet... I am not saying that there were disciplinary breaches,” Williams said.
6 divisions involved
Williams said the report had identified six divisions involved in the roadblock exercise. When asked how many police officers were involved in the exercise, Williams said he was unable to disclose that information. But Williams also did not directly answer a number of reporters’ questions yesterday. When asked what divisional heads were responsible for the roadblocks, he did not say. Asked if the report would be made public or available to journalists, he said the report was classified.
When asked if keeping the report confidential would not further tarnish the public’s trust in the Police Service, Williams said he was following through on the promise made to the public to have a report done and was informing the public of the report. Williams added that he acknowledged that the roadblock damaged public trust but promised that the TTPS would do its best to repair the damage done. He gave the assurance that there would be no recurrence of the roadblock.
On March 23 commuters from north, south, central, east and west Trinidad and parts of Tobago were stuck in gridlocked traffic for hours because of roadblocks conducted by police officers. Members of the TTPS described it as a total day of policing. However, no official in the TTPS was identified as responsible for giving the go-ahead for the roadblocks.