00:00The acting top cop tells the public to let the police conduct their investigation before
00:06speculating on what is taking place.
00:09He again stresses that the officers are guided by the director of public prosecutions.
00:16I know that many persons might be very anxious in terms of wanting to air their position
00:24on this particular situation out there.
00:27I want to just caution the public, before we could really jump to conclusions, it's
00:32important to have the truth on the matter.
00:37And because they don't really have the full facts, it is very easy to just take things
00:45that are out there.
00:46I would want to really just encourage the public to, first of all, allow the process
00:51to flow.
00:52Acting Commissioner Benjamin says one of his key areas of priority is the ongoing state
00:58of emergency, adding that while the SOE is only for a short time, he anticipates that
01:05it will yield long-term results.
01:07What we wanted to have is that at the end of the SOE, we must have some sustainable
01:13strategies going forward that will ensure a constant reduction in the crime situation
01:20while, you know, just after the SOE.
01:24He tells TV6, up to yesterday, the TTPS would have conducted 2,276 operations during the
01:32SOE.
01:34As a result, the acting commissioner says 1,714 persons were arrested, 81 firearms were
01:42seized and approximately 1,264 assorted rounds of ammunition were also discovered and seized.
01:51He tells us 294 grams of marijuana and one kilogram of cocaine were seized.
01:58He admits there is a lot more work to be done, but he believes officers are on the right
02:03path.
02:05When asked about the legitimacy of arrests made so far and whether or not they can stand
02:10up in court, the acting top cop had this to say.
02:14We have learned from our past so that we will not repeat that past again.
02:19Certainly we recognize what has happened in the past and therefore there's a greater level
02:24of diligence that is being paid in terms of how we deal with matters and especially in
02:29terms of how we go about arresting and the reason for the arrest.
02:34We ensure that the arrests that we have, even at this time, we have persons that would have
02:39been charged in terms of the numbers that we talk about, persons arrested.
02:44Again, the aim here is to really have those priority offenders, for them to be part and
02:52parcel of the detention.
02:55Nicole M Romany, TV6 News.
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