Govt: No arrest-powers for soldiers

THE Government is quite content for police officers alone to have powers of arrest and will not be extending that power to soldiers or coast guardsmen, said Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat on Tuesday in the Senate, in reply to a call made by Opposition Senator Wade Mark in a motion on the adjournment.

Mark said while joint police/army patrols have been under way for several years, current legislation does not empower soldiers by themselves to arrest suspects.

He urged action in the interest of providing social stability and public safety in a time of high crime, even if such arrest powers are to be granted for a temporary period by means of a legislative sunset clause.

Rambharat said no to Mark’s request. Rambharat said people already with the power of arrest, that is the police, are not using it sufficiently.

“We don’t believe members of the Defence Force should be given powers of arrest.” He said a similar measure had already been rejected by the Senate in the Defence (Amendment) Act 2013.

Rambharat said none of the 82 recommendations of the recent Police Service Manpower Audit had called for soldiers to be given arrest powers.

He chided the Opposition for having failed to support a Government bill in 2016 to tighten up on the granting of bail to suspects despite the TT Police Service supporting the measure.

He said that Mark in his motion was only able to cite endorsement by Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, but not the police nor by any data.

Rambharat lamented a high deficiency rate in the Police Service, such as 612 officers being labelled as “not available.”