Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, Gary Grif­fith has or­dered an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to po­lice of­fi­cers who he says stood still and did noth­ing while 1,000 spec­ta­tors wit­nessed a crick­et match in Cen­tral Trinidad last Wednes­day.

The CoP said that it was on­ly when he gave in­struc­tions for the match to be shut down, that the po­lice of­fi­cers on the scene made any at­tempt to dis­perse the crowd which had as­sem­bled.

The large crowd breached the COVID-19 pro­to­cols and caused a traf­fic night­mare along Pierre Road, Char­lieville.
He not­ed that dis­ci­pli­nary ac­tion can fol­low if the in­ves­ti­ga­tion shows those po­lice of­fi­cers did not car­ry out their du­ties.

Com­mis­sion­er Grif­fith said when he re­ceived a re­port that there were breach­es of the Pub­lic Health Reg­u­la­tions, he in­struct­ed the Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent in charge of the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion to shut down the event.

Al­though there were of­fi­cers present through­out the match, it was on­ly when they re­ceived in­struc­tions that the po­lice of­fi­cers went on­to the field and stopped the match.

The large crowd be­gan to dis­perse sub­se­quent­ly. A rep­re­sen­ta­tive team from the TTPS was en­gaged in a se­mi-fi­nal match in the Cen­tral T10 tour­na­ment at that time.

The CoP re­it­er­at­ed that there must be NO spec­ta­tors at team sports dur­ing the COVID-19 Pan­dem­ic.