7 more stations to be repurposed in modern policing plan

SEVEN more police stations will be repurposed as the police seek to cut back on costs as they currently owe suppliers $182 million as at the end of January.

In an e-mailed response to Sunday Newsday, the police  said some of the seven stations will not be repurposed this fiscal year. The seven are Mayaro; Four Roads (Diego Martin), both to be transformed into virtual courts; Cap-deVille Police Station (Point Fortin) will be used to accommodate the municipal police as a base and will be working along with police officers; San Juan sub-station will become the Traffic Investigations Unit to provide assistance with traffic management in the division; the St Madeleine and St Margaret’s police stations (San Fernando) will house homicide and Fraud Squad and the Gender-Based Violence Unit and Sexual Offences Unit for the southern and south western divisions, respectively. The Arima Police Station will also be used to hold virtual court sessions as well.

Police Commissioner Gary Griffith has repeatedly dismissed claims that the six police stations already repurposed were “closed” as they were rumoured to have been. Speaking to Sunday Newsday last Friday, Griffith said those rumours were spread by officers who did not want to work.

“Those rumours were deliberately spread to create mischief by police officers. They did that so the communities could protest to pressure me to put it back to normal because some of them were sleeping in the station. Let’s say there were 10 officers in a station and it only need two to function the other eight would be in the back sleeping and liming. Now they have to be out on patrol.”

Last Thursday at a town meeting with Santa Rosa (Arima) residents to discuss the issue, Griffith again assured that the stations will be open to the public to make reports.

The police service in responding to questions regarding the debt it owes to suppliers said one of the cost-cutting measures was the repurposing of police stations as some of the rental costs for special units will no longer be incurred. One example highlighted was that the operational cost at the St Mary’s Police Post (Moruga) will no longer be borne by the police as it will be part of the youth club’s expenses.

In the past five years, the police spent $20,100,000 in rentals in addition to the annual $19.9 million to run the 77 police stations/posts throughout the country.

“Also the TTPS is trying to reduce its annual expenditure on rent and as such buildings that are owned by the TTPS are being refurbished to accommodate additional and different units to reduce spending taxpayers’ money on rent.”

The response added that the police service is moving away from ad-hoc facilities to more streamlined and cost benefiting measures. It added that several measures are now in place to ensure the delivery of service and improve on the services offered.

“Re-purposing stations mandates that officers have increased foot patrols, motorcycle patrols where applicable and mobile patrols. This means that officers are not in stations waiting to be called to the scene of a crime but are patrolling and can respond faster and even disrupt and prevent crimes of opportunity.”

Asked if there is a difference between the re-purposing and the 21st Century Policing introduced by former police commissioner Dwayne Gibbs a decade ago, Sunday Newsday was told that the two are “very similar with a minor difference in execution.” The difference includes the introduction of the virtual courts and Special Victims Department.

“In fact, the establishment of domestic violence and special victims units to provide specialised services to victims of domestic violence and sex crimes was an idea under the 21st Century Policing which has been executed under the re-purposing programme. The 21st Century Policing Pilot Project in 2010/2011, like the re-purposing, is focused initially on the core services, that being crime suppression and prevention, through visible responsive and effective contemporary methods, operating under the philosophy of community policing.”

The statement added: “The re-purposing programme is about transformation to effect reduction in response times and recurrent expenditure and improving accountability. Patrols will also be key to the programme where officers will be patrolling the nation’s roads and not seated in stations. Both initiatives aim at officers policing the streets instead of the police stations; placing officers in neighbourhoods and communities patrolling and working with residents to prevent crime from occurring and building partnership between the residents and the police.

So far, six police stations have already been re-purposed to increase in productivity and cut back on expenses. The six stations are: Barataria, Moriah (Tobago), San Rafael, Blanchisseuse, St Mary’s and Brasso. Each station was re-purposed based on their location, proximity to other stations, their crime statistics, services offered, units that were housed at the station and manpower.

Barataria was turned into a virtual court and Moriah is now a medical facility for officers to get basic medical attention. San Rafael houses the Gender-Based Violence Unit and Sexual Offences Unit to serve the northern and north eastern divisions while Blanchisseuse now houses a joint task force. The St Mary’s post is hosting the St Mary’s Police Youth Club and Brasso is now a juvenile booking centre with the Child Protection Unit continuing to operate out of it as well.

Permanent homes for youth clubs will allow them to engage the youths of the community in a wider selection of activities such as football, karate, netball, boxing, homework centres and IT programmes, police said.

“The (six) stations were assessed to determine if reassignment of units to and out of the building would enhance operations and delivery of service to the public. The aim is to streamline operations, co-locate complementary units and to accommodate the expansion of services being offered to the public which include the establishment of the Gender-Based Violence Unit, Sexual Offences Unit and virtual courts."