00:00 According to Professor Diosiran, the Commissioner of Police has a lot of responsibility,
00:06 which includes the management of the physical and human resources of the TDPS.
00:12 He believes a support system is necessary for the job to be executed efficiently.
00:18 As such, he says, the police inspectorate recommended by the Policeman Power Audit Committee in 2017 can be of great assistance.
00:28 That police inspectorate is an institution, it's not one person, it's not a police inspector.
00:34 It's a police inspectorate, it's like a unit that will go out with the equipment, with the mandate, all over the country,
00:44 from Trinidad and Tobago, to make sure what the police station is supposed to do,
00:49 what all the police officers in the field are supposed to do, are done properly,
00:54 and make the reports regularly to the Commissioner.
00:58 Now that to me is a very useful strategy because she now will have the equipment to speak and to act accordingly.
01:04 So briefly, that is it.
01:06 He notes that the Joint Select Committees of Parliament have been very robust in their inquiries,
01:13 noting that the police inspectorate will also have to appear before the Joint Select Committee.
01:19 However, he says, after these sittings, where people come to Parliament and account,
01:24 there are no consequences and no one is dealt with.
01:28 Professor Diusaran says this has to change.
01:31 We hold people responsible, and where there is bad performance, we sort of leave it there,
01:37 and we come back in a cycle to say the same thing.
01:40 So I think on that beat, we have to reform the Joint Select Committee,
01:46 which will be part of the constitutional reform exercise we are entering into,
01:50 to make them stronger and give them possibly subpoena powers to order people to come when they refuse to come,
01:57 and also apply some sanctions after due process for their malperformance.
02:04 Professor Diusaran, a criminologist, is calling on both the government and the opposition
02:10 to get serious and discuss the details of implementation of the police inspectorate.
02:16 Let the bus stop moving now, because the longer we take, time is not on our side.
02:23 Time is on the side right of the criminals.
02:26 They are becoming more organised, they are becoming more like business groups.
02:32 They have a structure, you know.
02:34 If you look at the home invasions, it's just a pattern.
02:37 It isn't isolated, scattered people doing here and another one there.
02:41 It is an organised system in my view.
02:44 With respect to the police commissioner and her failure to meet targets set in the fight against crime,
02:50 the criminologist says the top cop should be given a chance,
02:54 but he believes she may have been too optimistic.
02:58 He notes the police commissioner's promise to reduce the murder rate by the end of the year when she took office.
03:04 Given the police service that she is in charge of,
03:09 she should well know that to put a 30% increase in performance on a particular crime,
03:16 murder or robbery and so on, is a bit too overdone.
03:21 I think she should be a little bit more modest, but she explained that she put the targets there
03:28 to inspire the police officers to work harder.
03:32 Have they worked harder? Look at the detection rate.
03:36 Nicole M Romany, TV6 News.
03:40 .
03:43 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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