Moore wants Tobagonians to work with police to build safe communities

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Tobago Division, Garfield Moore, is calling on Tobagonians is calling on Tobagonians to engage in introspection on how to build communities together with the police.

Moore, speaking at a police town meeting last Wednesday at the Canaan/Bon Accord community centre, also called for trust and interaction between police officers and Tobagonians,

“How can we build communities together? Over the last few months, we have been going around to the various communities having forums like this where people would come out, share their views, criticise the police, praise the police, say how we can do things better but I want us to do some introspection, looking into how can we build communities together,” he said as he called for the public to work with the police.

“Without trust within the community between the police and the members of the public we will have a breakdown. At the end of the day, we rely on you and you rely on us and if we have to interact with each

other within the community, we must build that trust and confidence that we can go out there and you can come to the police and the community. We really want to see at this juncture whether the level of trust is improved because we cannot do it alone,” he said.

Moore pointed to neighbourhood watch groups and police youth clubs as ways to build trust among communities and the police.

Senior Superintendent Joanne Archie, also speaking at the event, declared the town meetings were beneficial to both the communities and the police service.

“From time to time, we as police officers need to meet with you, the members of the communities, especially us the senior officers. While we train our officers and have them out there, we visit them, we patrol with them, we still need to know whether they are doing what they are supposed to do. We are by no means a perfect organisation,” Archie said.