Feeles to police: Handle deadbeat dads differently

President of the Single Fathers' Association Rhondall Feeles
President of the Single Fathers' Association Rhondall Feeles

JENSEN LA VENDE

THE 11-minute video of police officers arresting a man on an outstanding child maintenance warrant may be the catalyst for changing the way police officers address non-criminal warrants.

The video, which began circulating at Easter weekend, shows a man holding his child while being arrested on two warrants. The child had to be forcibly taken from his father while the man’s relatives recorded the interaction.

President of the Single Fathers’ Association Rhondall Feeles told Newsday that while he has not yet communicated with the man, he hopes to speak with acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams, Police Service and Welfare Association head Insp Michael Seales and he has written to the Judiciary on the issue. Feeles said he is not against police for carrying out their mandate but he believes the matter should have been and could be better handled.

“We need to look at a different approach to arresting people on non-criminal offence warrants,” he said.

“There is no need for such drastic approaches sometimes.”

Feeles said he has interviewed children who were traumatised in similar incidents and have even spoken to fathers who have been evicted because of police coming to their homes and “kicking down their doors.”

Seales said he is open to the idea of a standardised way of treating with the non-criminal arrest warrants.

He said he hopes to meet Feeles to flesh out plans to make that a reality.

“There is this thing called institutional violence where the institution of the court is used to perpetuate violence against someone,” Seales said.

“When the court should be used as a shield, it is instead used as a sword.

Public safety is important, sometimes police’s best actions can be adverse to people although the police is right. There is no need to amend legislation. What I can encourage him to do is start a registry in the various districts and get a list of fathers who are subject to court orders and have a partnership so it won’t reach to police coming to look for them.”

Newsday also spoke with a warrant officer in charge of north Trinidad who said police are caught between a rock and a hard place.

The inspector explained that on one hand the warrants are court-mandated orders that must be carried out and, on the other hand, when they liaise with the person named in the warrant, usually men, police are accused of being biased. He said there is already a policy for offenders to surrender themselves to police so that the execution of the warrant at home or at work will not happen.

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