CoP: Police need more training

IT MAY COME as a slap in the face to some police officers, but Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith expressed disappointment in the handling of a person who resisted arrest and struck a police officer last week.

Griffith said during the weekly police press briefing on Tuesday that officers need proper training in unarmed combat so they could detain a person resisting arrest without hurting the person or themselves.

Police will soon have help however, as from Monday, all police officers walking their beats will be equipped with pepper spray, and some will also be armed with Tasers.

“I have to look at some very serious training with my officers, because I am not impressed with the type of tactics that I have seen officers using when dealing with resisting arrest,” Griffith said.

“The first thing you do: get them to the ground, immediately.”

He said this tactic is used to protect yourself and the individual being arrested from being hurt, instead of “these tussles while standing – and it means there needs to be proper training in unarmed combat.”

Griffith said he had issued a minimum-use-of-force policy which included several measures to detain someone without shooting them. These include verbal persuasion, body cameras, radioing in for backup, batons, pepper spray, and Tasers, before resorting to reaching for a gun.

Griffith cautioned people to “comply then complain” when dealing with police, especially from Monday, as he explained from first-hand experience that the pepper spray was no joke.

“Trust me, it is not a nice feeling,” he said. “I experienced it a couple months ago when a police officer was spraying it at someone and he pointed it in the wrong direction and sprayed it on me. I was out of it for a few hours.”

Last Friday, a police officer was slapped in the face while trying to issue a ticket to a man on the corner of Queen and George Street. Although the man was eventually arrested, witnesses not only applauded and laughed as he slapped the officer but recorded it on their phones and shared it on social media – which also garnered its fair share of laughter and support.

Griffith condemned the reactions to the police officer being slapped and said it showed where TT has reached as a society.

“I don’t know how your parents brought you up, but I could never see myself applauding when a police officer is trying to detain someone and they are resisting arrest and fighting,” Griffith said.

He promised to equip officers with pepper spray even as he complained of a lack of finances.

The commissioner admitted that the police are currently in debt over $200 million, although they remained within their budget, and actually saved $100 million.

“Thankfully the Minister of Finance understood the situation, because of the $200 million we sent in invoices that we did not get, and it was within the 300 million budget.

“So all our suppliers for maintenance of vehicles electricity, maintenance of the building, equipment – it has pegged us back.

“But will find a way. I give the assurance to public that come Monday every police officer will have pepper spray; in the next month or two, body cameras and Tasers. It may not be for every police officer, but will definitely be for those walking out on the street.”