New police unit will have pepper spray, tasers

COMMISSIONER of Police Gary Griffith says tomorrow a new police unit will be launched that will be equipped with pepper spray and tasers.

He made the announcement during the weekly police media briefing yesterday at the Police Administration Building, Port of Spain.

He said on Friday the Emergency Response Patrol will be launched which have more than 85 vehicles strategically placed around the country.

“What you will be seeing is technology at its finest whereby we will have systems to measure performance, make the police officers accountable and ensure you will have real time response, a rapid response, high visibility and a heavy deterrent. This is just one of many mechanisms you will see in the very near future of policies being used towards the modernisation and the transformation of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service.”

He said pepper spray and tasers would be basically used by officers in the Emergency Response Patrol. Griffith said he was trying to change the scenario where people would call 999 and be put on hold for 20 minutes and then be transferred to a police station who may not have vehicles and cannot respond.

Griffith explained the Emergency Response Patrol vehicles will be strategically placed in all nine divisions and will stay in their area of responsibility and be monitored via GPS. He said because these officers will be the first line the pilot project will be to have the pepper spray and tasers given to them.

He said the police have received samples of the weapons and are within full authority to use pepper spray and tasers. He added citizens are not allowed to use them because they are viewed as firearms based on outdated legislation. “There is no need for any legislation based on the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service utilising it.”

He said the pepper spray and tasers would not just be given immediately to officers because there must be a degree of training. He explained worldwide on a very few occasions tasers have been lethal based on the individual’s mental capacity.

“However the fact is if the police officer did not have the taser he would have used the firearm. So the taser provides an avenue to prevent that person being killed. I think it is something that should be supported by all citizens.”

He said you must understand how to use these things and if pepper spray or tasers are used when someone at the edge of roadway the officer needs to know how to angle their position so the person does not fall on to the road or over the bridge.

He said minimum use of force was a system used by law enforcement agencies to ensure the minimum use of force is incorporated by the officer based on the threat and if the threat escalates it would intensified. He explained the systems were from verbal persuasion, radioing for back-up, pepper spray, tasers, rubber bullets and firearms as the last system.

“Without the other systems in the past we would have seen police officers where they reverted to using the firearm.”

He said now with the minimum use of force policy he was quite shocked with people questioning comments he made about the use of pepper spray and tasers for resisting arrest.
“If a person break the law and resist arrest what do you expect a police officer to use? This is something that is done worldwide.”

He also said the Emergency Response Patrol vehicles will have cameras which are not only for officers who abuse their authority but for their protection as well. He said the cameras will feed real time information to the Operation Command Centre and the Commissioner’s Command Centre.

Griffith had made the call for pepper spray and tasers last year in his capacity as former national security minister and the Police Social and Welfare Association had made similar calls in the past. During the national budget presentation Finance Minister Colm Imbert said the use of non-lethal weapons by police officers was being increased and Government will make appropriate legal arrangements to allow for the use of non-lethal weapons, pepper spray, rubber bullets and so on.