BRASSO RESIDENTS WANT POLICE STATION REOPENED

CCNTV6

On the heels of two murders in just a few days in their community, residents of Brasso and environs call  for the reopening of the area’s police station, as a matter of urgency.  The Brasso Police Station was closed four years ago, leaving many rural communities in the area feeling vulnerable to criminal elements.  Reporter Cindy Raghubar-Teekersingh spoke with residents and councillors from the area as they demanded answers outside the closed station building.

Transcript

00:00To call on the minister to let him know that one murder is too much.

00:05Residents of Tabakit, Flanagan Town, Mammaral and Brasso, among other communities,

00:11tell us that they have felt abandoned, disregarded by the authorities, but above all, unsafe.

00:18We have a blue and white monument to the back of me here.

00:21This has been recently built and it has been repurposed some years ago.

00:27We are calling on the minister to give us some answers.

00:31When would the Brasso station be reopened?

00:35And when would the residents of the Brasso district station feel safe again?

00:40The Brasso station was rebuilt in 2013,

00:43but closed a few years ago to be repurposed for the TTPS's child protection unit.

00:49The residents say officers who were stationed at Brasso

00:53were sent to the Grand Cuva police station,

00:56which is much further away and connected by terrible roads.

01:00We have a lot of crime taking place in this community.

01:03As you would know, this is a farming community.

01:05And we have a lot of pretty harassment incidents.

01:08We have a lot of house break-ins.

01:10However, the residents are so frustrated that sometimes they don't even bother to report it

01:14because the distance they have to traverse.

01:16Anything happen in Brasso, we have to take a taxi from Brasso to Chaguanas,

01:21from Chaguanas to Cuva, from Cuva to Grand Cuva to make a report.

01:25Tell me where in the world this is happening but Brasso.

01:29They say sometimes when residents do make it to one station,

01:33they are directed to another district.

01:36If a crime takes place between Rio Claro and Tod's Road,

01:41the bandit has free road to run from here, go through Talparo and reach in Arima

01:47because there is no police station,

01:49not even the San Rafael police station to stop anybody there and search anybody.

01:53Police cannot stop crime everywhere, but the presence is a deterrent.

01:57And that's what we're asking for.

01:59We reached out to both the Minister of National Security, Fitzgerald Hines,

02:03and the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service,

02:06but up to news time, did not receive responses.

02:09Brasso is a forgotten village in Trinidad.

02:12I always say that.

02:14Cindy Ragubar-Tikasingh, TV6 News.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended