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  • 6 months ago
The proposed "Stand Your Ground" legislation, could place the lives of police officers in danger, especially those who do not adhere to the protocols when entering the homes of people.

It was a concern raised at consultations in Tacarigua on Tuesday.

Alicia Boucher has more in this report.
Transcript
00:00There have been reports of incidents over the years where police allegedly announced their arrival
00:06and without presenting warrants or identification entered the homes of people.
00:11There have also been incidents where criminals pretended to be police and people opened their homes to them.
00:17It's against this backdrop that the conversation on the Stand Your Ground proposed legislation
00:22took a turn in this direction, with people raising concerns about how they should respond.
00:28Nadina Mirage is one of them.
00:30What the bill does, in my estimation, it removes that pause from me acting.
00:37But when you have someone standing in front of you saying, I am the police, and you are unsure,
00:44I am now in that pause moment, so you have reintroduced that pause.
00:49What can be done that could facilitate me as a homeowner to remove that question
00:56so that I could act or not act with a certain amount of clarity?
01:01Is identification by the police something that could be done?
01:05What can the bill include?
01:07Minister of Legal Affairs Saddam Hussein says police have certain protocols they are supposed to follow
01:12based on the police standing orders.
01:15And the department orders of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service,
01:20when a police enters your home, there are certain protocols they must follow
01:24in terms of the proper identification of themselves.
01:28That is something that we have to reiterate.
01:32We have no control over the police service.
01:35The police service, at the end of the day, is an independent institution.
01:39Hussein says police officers are issued an identification card,
01:44in part to indicate that they are legitimate officers.
01:48No police officer should be scaling your wall or running in your house and say,
01:54you understand there are certain protocols they have to identify themselves
01:58before they enter your premises.
02:01In cases of a state of emergency which the country is presently under
02:04and will remain for at least the next three months,
02:08another challenge arises, as pointed out by one constituent of Barataria San Juan.
02:13In a state of emergency, police do not require a law enforcement,
02:19they do not require a warrant to enter your premises.
02:23In that case, what happens, I've seen someone mention,
02:27if someone comes in about police, police,
02:30none of us here know what a police ID actually looks like.
02:33That's number one.
02:33These things will be created anyway.
02:36You could go and, I mean, take a photocopy and do your stuff.
02:40None of us really know what it looks like.
02:42He notes the possibility that a police officer can be shot
02:45or, likewise, a criminal pretending to be a police officer.
02:50His question, what protection is there under the Stand Your Ground law?
02:55Hussein calls it a touchy situation.
02:58There's no one answer.
03:00It's always circumstantial.
03:04We can't say, don't let police into your home.
03:07If they are lawfully coming into your home by virtue of a warrant or so on,
03:14and the police officer is shot dead,
03:17therefore, that is an exception.
03:19You cannot be protected by the law if he's executing his lawful duties.
03:24Because we want to ensure that we also protect law enforcement.
03:29But the minister did not outline what happens where no ID or warrant is presented
03:34and a police officer is shot.
03:37Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
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