Use-of-force policy farce

WHAT exactly is the use-of-force policy of the police?

The question arises given the shocking deaths of six people at Razack Trace, Freeport, on August 14.

Any use-of-force policy should be designed to ensure excessive force is avoided. The threat should be imminent or unavoidable. There should be an escalation from non-lethal to lethal measures.

The official police policy on force states, “The TTPS has rolled out taser guns and pepper spray as part of its arsenal. It is hoped the effective use of these tools, supplemented by body-worn cameras, will reduce fatalities.”

Yet we get little sense of warnings, escort techniques, mechanical controls, chemical irritants or impact weapons being mobilised to avoid deadly action. Almost invariably, cases are not woundings or people being disarmed, but rather, killings.

And almost invariably, no camera is worn.

“We will use the requisite force in accordance with the Constitution, the rule of law and the use-of-force policy,” claimed DCP Junior Benjamin in the wake of this week’s incident, which saw a 16-year-old girl and men aged 19, 21 and 23 among the dead.

DCP Benjamin said officers do not intend to kill, and the proof is the way suspects are rushed to medical facilities.

Yet it is equally possible this same hospitalisation – often involving individuals declared dead on arrival – is a flimsy procedure meant to imbue a semblance of legitimacy on an illegitimate outcome.

The slowness of the police to issue its account of the Freeport operation was worrying.

As was the timeline in that account, issued, notably, in the name of Commissioner of Police Erla Harewood-Christopher. The precipitating event, reportedly a home invasion in Couva, was at 6.30 am, a full five hours before.

“We need to actively engage with young people,” said the top cop, “and steer them away from the appeal of criminal behaviour.”

However, the issue is not the choices of the young, but the choices of police acting on “intelligence."

The home-invasion victim has referred to three bandits and a driver – all apparently not wishing him dead – before six people being violently killed, reportedly after gunfire.

Relatives, who pursuant to procedure were not able to see loved ones, complained about a lack of official information and attested to characters inconsistent with the outcome.

Is the “policy” merely a harkening back to the Flying Squad of Randolph Burroughs, in which deterrence was linked to extra-judicial power?

If so, it is clearly not working.

There have been 36 police-involved deaths during this year’s ongoing crime spiral.

In fact, there is reason to believe such killings, which endanger officers and the public, are making crime worse because they force criminals to arm themselves and to assume police will shoot first and ask questions later.