The matter of virtual courtrooms in several police stations across the country is being described as almost at boiling point, Government Ministers toured the Besson Street Station this morning to witness first-hand what currently applies.
00:00Justice Minister Devish Maharaj and Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander made a pop-up visit to the Bessel Street police station today to assess the situation.
00:12Well we visited to understand first-hand the question of the virtual courtrooms being held in the police stations and the police are really inconvenienced by a lot of their space being taken up with the computers and the virtual courtrooms.
00:28And we are trying to find a quick solution, a short-term solution in the first instance to alleviate the problem.
00:35And we think we have found a solution but we won't disclose it just yet because we have some visits to make to the Port of Spain Magistrates Court.
00:45Here's what they gleaned.
00:47These four or five rooms are totally discommoded.
00:50The ID parade room which is used by the police of course for identification by victims of crime is totally unusable because it has been converted to a virtual courtroom.
01:05It's highly regular.
01:07And so if you have to do an ID parade, the police have to go up to possibly Barataria station and sometimes as far as law operator.
01:18There are, he explained, about six to seven such stations across the country facilitating the virtual courtrooms first introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
01:28Inspector Drewel Braffitt, the officer in charge of the Bessel Street Station, has a first-hand view of what exactly happens.
01:37So there were several rooms that were available to the officers before such as the interview room as well as the ID parade room.
01:42Those rooms have become, have been repurposed actually for the courts.
01:46So now we have no interview room, no ID parade room at this station at this time.
01:49And could you remind us as to how this happened?
01:52This came about during the COVID, when the, um, when the actual magistrate's court closed down.
01:58It leads to long and arduous days for all those appearing in court, the officers and even judicial officers.
02:05We service three divisions.
02:07That's the Northeastern Division, Portospin Division and Western Divisions.
02:10All those prisoners come to Bessel Street and have to use one computer.
02:14One computer for that virtual court.
02:17So court sometimes runs very late because it's one person can go before the court at a time,
02:22where previously you would have ten courts sitting simultaneously.
02:25According to Inspector, there's a fundamental flaw being overlooked.
02:30As Braffitt says, it's not just about space.
02:34You cannot really perceive justice if you are facing the courts in the very same building that you are arrested, interrogated,
02:43and detained.
02:46There's no real perception of justice.
02:48He says the solution is simple and welcomes government's swift moves to seeing it come to bear.
02:55As far as we are aware, the magistrate's court has been refurbished and is ready for use.
02:59And it's just sitting there empty right now.
03:01As Minister Maharaj put it.
03:03It's close to boiling point.
03:05Ravashid Tawari, Rupnarain, TV6 News.
03:08Alright.
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