Griffith after US cop found guilty of George Floyd's murder: Our police are most accountable now

COMMISSIONER of Police (CoP) Gary Griffith said police officers were now under the highest level of accountability ever, speaking to Newsday minutes after news from the United States that Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin had been found guilty on three charges for choking to death African-American bouncer George Floyd last May.

Newsday sought Griffith's response to the verdict and to activist Shabaka Kambon's remarks that TT police officers should avoid missteps made by US police officers such as abuse of authority.

The CoP told Newsday, "A police officer is always a citizen first and must adhere to the laws in a country. He may have the authority to be able to commit certain actions to ensure laws are enforced but he cannot breach that threshold that will cause him to break a law."

He said the truth of his assertion could be seen in TT over the past three years.

"We have over 200 police officers who have actually been suspended or actually been charged for offences. This has never been done before. What you've seen in TT, you've never seen before. We have now shifted to make sure police officers will not abuse their authority."

If abuse does happen, Griffith said, there has never before been such good collaboration between the police and the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) as now.

"I am pushing the envelope to the extent where it is that I am trying that persons (officers) that are charged for committing acts such as murder, kidnapping, rape should be fired whilst charged because you have now brought the police service into disrepute.

"Likewise I have mentioned the fact of the State Liability Act."

He said under this law, any officer who abused his authority would be liable, rather than aggrieved individuals suing the State.

"You would have heard my comment on that, which I intend to pursue."

Griffith said the Police Social and Welfare Association has a different view.

"But I'm not talking about a police officer who may have performed his duty and something went wrong. I'm talking about a police officer who wilfully abused his authority to the point where he would have committed some act to have affected someone who wants to sue the State. That police officer must bear some type of responsibility."

Griffith said these measures would ensure the police do not abuse their authority but adhere to the law.

"We like to look at other countries to try to compare but what we have seen during the covid pandemic is that in many countries you have seen confrontations and clashes, persons being arrested, persons being hurt and killed by police officers and you've see police officers being hurt and killed by citizens.

"You've not had anything like that in this country and that is where I hope citizens start to see the glass half-full rather than half empty. That shows we have a professional police service that we are developing, building and improving."

He said this requires maturity, patience and tolerance.

Griffith reiterated there has been no covid-based confrontation between the police and citizenry in TT. He said police officers and citizens must show each other mutual respect, urging people not to use their cellphones to get up into the faces of officers doing their duties.

"All officers have to understand that every citizen is their employer and you have to know how to speak to them and respect them. Citizens also. Police officers will be arresting someone and several persons will go right up, putting their camera in their face, preventing the officers from doing their job.

"So it's not just police officers have to improve to prevent confrontation, but citizens in our society need to respect police officers doing their job. It is not your right to go in their face to prevent them doing their job and try to influence persons to resist arrest when police are trying to arrest persons.

"We are not perfect, police and citizens both have their jobs to do, but as you can see in comparison to other countries in the world we are in a much better place. We still have our work to do but in the last three years you have seen a drastic improvement."

The police have otherwise been accused of excessive force in the deaths of three men stopped by the police on Laventille Road last July and the deaths of two suspects in custody in Andrea Bharatt's murder, while young men marching to Parliament to protest the first incident were dispersed by tear gas from the police last year.