Akash Sama­roo

Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Er­la Hare­wood- Christo­pher has or­dered that a woman be in­ves­ti­gat­ed for the in­ap­pro­pri­ate use of a po­lice of­fi­cer’s uni­form.

A video ap­peared on so­cial me­dia on Sun­day show­ing the woman at a so­cial gath­er­ing wear­ing a po­lice of­fi­cer’s jack­et around her waist and in an open-but­toned fash­ion. The woman al­so wore a black short pants and a grey vest with a jack­et. She was drink­ing from a cup and bot­tles of al­co­hol could be seen in the back­ground of the video.

Head of the North­ern Di­vi­sion, Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent Ker­win Fran­cis con­firmed to Guardian Me­dia that his di­vi­sion along with the Pro­fes­sion­al Stan­dards Bu­reau (PSB) will be spear­head­ing the in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

“What I can tell you is that the video and its con­tents came to our at­ten­tion via so­cial me­dia last night (Sun­day) and based on its cir­cu­la­tion the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice man­dat­ed that an in­ves­ti­ga­tion be done.”

At the time of the in­ter­view, Fran­cis said they were yet to as­cer­tain if the woman is a mem­ber of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) or where and when the in­ci­dent took place. He said their find­ings will be made pub­lic “in due course.”

But the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion (TTPSS­WA) is livid by what tran­spired.

Pres­i­dent of the as­so­ci­a­tion, Gideon Dick­son, said while their in­for­ma­tion sug­gests the woman in ques­tion is a civil­ian, if she is an of­fi­cer, her ac­tions are dis­heart­en­ing and dis­re­spect­ful.

“In ei­ther in­stance or how you look at it, it does not send the right mes­sage to both the in­ter­nal cus­tomers or the ex­ter­nal, it isn’t the type of im­age we are look­ing for at this point in time. She not be­ing a po­lice of­fi­cer sim­ply means be­ing in pos­ses­sion and pur­port­ing to be an of­fi­cer is an of­fence and she must be brought to jus­tice to an­swer that charge. And if it was a po­lice of­fi­cer, we are say­ing that we can­not con­done the por­tray­al of the uni­form in that man­ner, it is not in keep­ing with our stand­ing or­ders and it does noth­ing to boost or win back pub­lic con­fi­dence.”

Dick­son added that mem­bers of the pub­lic who know the woman or even if they have in­for­ma­tion on who lent her the uni­form, should in­form the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties. He told Guardian Me­dia if the lat­ter is the case, of­fi­cers should re­mem­ber that they are sup­posed to take pride in their uni­form.

“The uni­form is to be worn with a lev­el of pro­fes­sion­al­ism; it must show re­spect, where even if you are not speak­ing, it should speak for you.”

Sec­tion 62 of the Po­lice Ser­vice Act states that a per­son who, with­out the con­sent of the Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er, puts on, ei­ther in whole or in part of the uni­form or in any way pre­tends to be a po­lice of­fi­cer, is li­able on sum­ma­ry con­vic­tion to a fine of $30,000 and to im­pris­on­ment for three years.

Mean­while, The Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty (PCA) has al­so ini­ti­at­ed an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the mat­ter.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, the PCA said it is ded­i­cat­ed to pro­mot­ing pub­lic con­fi­dence in the Trinidad and To­ba­go jus­tice sys­tem and is invit­ing mem­bers of the pub­lic to share any in­for­ma­tion they may have re­lat­ed to the in­ves­ti­ga­tion.