Le­gal Of­fi­cer for the Po­lice Ser­vice, Cor­po­ral Za­heer Ali, says it is im­por­tant that the po­lice of­fi­cers who were charged with ex­tor­tion be giv­en the op­por­tu­ni­ty to clear their names in a court of law.

And he al­so is of the view that the cas­es are not com­plete­ly dead in the wa­ter, but that the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) should make his own as­sess­ment of the mat­ter.

The cas­es against sev­en po­lice of­fi­cers were dis­missed af­ter the pros­e­cu­tion failed to meet court or­ders, present cru­cial ev­i­dence, and en­sure the at­ten­dance of key wit­ness­es.

And five oth­er po­lice of­fi­cers—who were charged af­ter al­leged­ly so­lic­it­ing mon­ey and mar­i­jua­na from a cou­ple—al­so walked free on Wednes­day, af­ter the State failed to present suf­fi­cient ev­i­dence.

Cor­po­ral Ali says trans­paren­cy is need­ed for both the po­lice and the pub­lic.

“I am ad­vised, at this time, that the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice and the Ex­ec­u­tive of the TTPS are in fact re­view­ing a re­port that has been sub­mit­ted.  They are aware of the con­tents of that re­port,” he re­vealed. 

“Com­ing out of that re­port, it will be im­por­tant for us to en­sure that there is full trans­paren­cy and ac­count­abil­i­ty in terms of how the TTPS han­dles this mat­ter,” he told CNC3’s The Morn­ing Brew show.

Cor­po­ral Ali be­lieves the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) should be en­gaged in or­der to de­ter­mine whether the cas­es can be re­viewed or ap­pealed.

“It is im­por­tant for us, as the TTPS, to take this op­por­tu­ni­ty to ven­ti­late [the is­sue of the col­lapsed cas­es] to the ex­tent that it pro­motes trans­paren­cy and ac­count­abil­i­ty,” he ar­gues.

He as­serts it is im­por­tant to de­ter­mine ex­act­ly where things went wrong.

“Whether it is an is­sue of hu­man re­source; or a fail­ure on the part of the TTPS pros­e­cu­tors or com­plainants; or whether it may have been a wrong ex­er­cise of a de­ci­sion on the part of the Ju­di­cial Of­fi­cer,” he ex­plained, “those things will on­ly be de­ter­mined af­ter the is­sue is prop­er­ly ven­ti­lat­ed.”

He added: “I want to as­sure mem­bers of the pub­lic that the TTPS will in fact look at the length and breadth of this is­sue, [so that we can] take the nec­es­sary proac­tive steps to en­sure there is not a re­peat of this mat­ter.”

Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, Kei­th Scot­land MP, has giv­en as­sur­ances to the pub­lic that the mat­ter of the col­lapsed cas­es is not yet over.