Jacob: No police post for Rose Hill

ACTING Commissioner of Police Mc Donald Jacob says there will be no police post for the Rose Hill community, even after a shooting near a primary school left children traumatised.

Instead, he said there will be increased police patrols. Jacob is expected to meet with  RC Archbishop Jason Gordon on Monday on the shooting incident near the Rose Hill RC Primary school on October 31.

They, along with officers of the Port of Spain Division, will also meet with the school's administration and teachers.

Jacob was asked if consideration will be given to establishing a police post in the community, but said there will be none.

“A police post requires particular resources and now we have a proliferation and we are getting more and more police vehicles. What we will have are police vehicles at semi-static points, and patrols in the area to ensure that the area is safe.”

Last Monday ago, gunmen from Argyle Street, Gonzales, exchanged a volley of shots with men from Richardson Lane, Laventille, when the former tried to enter Richardson Lane.

While there were no reports of anyone being injured or killed, a video recording of infant pupils of Rose Hill RC being told by a teacher to take cover during the gunfight went viral on social media two days later.

Jacob said police who were on patrol responded to the shooting but when they got there, it had stopped and the gunmen were gone and guns hidden.

He said the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) has extended its patrol zone and will police that area, while the Port of Spain Task Force will pay particular attention to the school.

Jacob explained that a static patrol - where police stand guard at a particular site for a specified period of time - was better than a police post.

"A lot of people may think that (police post) is the answer, but that is not the answer, because sooner or later the manpower will dwindle."

Jacob also admitted that the pupils of Rose Hill RC would have experienced heightened fear, causing them psychological harm.

“Even if someone is firing from 200 metres away and people hear the gunshots, it will affect them... There are still concerns about the mental health of the students...You don't know when someone is firing from a distance, across the roof or the school or wherever, when something will go wrong."

He said that incident was a cause for concern and it was for this reason he instructed Deputy Commissioner Erla Christopher to visit the school.

Jacob said for anyone to suggest that there was no need for concern because the shooting did not take place on the school's compound "would be foolish."

He said ministers Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly and Fitzgerald Hinds both expressed their concern, as well as MP Keith Scotland. While not referring specifically to the Facebook post in which Hinds said the video of the Rose Hill pupils was "misleading" because the shooting did not take place on the school grounds and the children were "not ever at peril of any physical danger," Jacob said any misrepresentation of what took place on October 31 must have been taken out of context.

"Someone may have made the statement that fortunately it was not on the compound, but that does not mean to say that we are not lifting our security level there and making sure we have a police presence and things like that.”

On Friday, Gadsby-Dolly said physical classes at the school will resume on Wednesday. She said police will be providing sustained presence for the duration of school days for a period to be determined.