The T&T Police Service (TTPS) has taken a zero-tolerance approach to citizens who intend to block roads when carrying out protest action.
Speaking at the weekly police press briefing at the Police Administration Building in Port-of-Spain on Wednesday, Police Commissioner Gary Griffith repeatedly said such measures had no place in a modern society.
"I am not saying it is not your right to protest, but I am humbly pleading with the public that the days of blocking roads and burning bridges and infringing on the rights of others to freedom of movement has to stop," he said.
Griffith said the TTPS will assist citizens with holding peaceful protests once they seek permission first and obey the law.
"It is your democratic right to protest and the TTPS will provide all of the support that you would need. We would provide the security and I would provide the approval for you to protest, but you must protest within the law," Griffith said.
Griffith repeatedly apologised for the TTPS's handling of a protest by students of the University of the West Indies (UWI) for additional security at their St Augustine campus last week.
While he admitted he could not comment extensively on the case as two students are currently facing charges before the court over the incident, Griffith did confess that his officers could have handled the situation differently.
Describing the situation as unfortunate, he said highly trained officers from the Guard and Emergency Branch (GEB) should have been called in to perform crowd control duties that were eventually instead done by police officers of the Northern Division.
"When it is you are doing crowd control drills it is not appropriate for the officers to have rifles slung over them whilst trying to apprehend an individual. That can cause negligent discharges or a situation of confrontation," Griffith said as he claimed to give an honest and transparent assessment of the situation.
However, Griffith said he would not apologise for the police's actions in arresting the students after they allegedly resisted them.
"The same way you have seen me operate in dealing with overtime and rogue police officers, I would be the first to condemn and remove any police officer who disrespects the uniform. But in the same manner, I would be there to support my troops.
"We cannot have this continue where we feel it is our right to resist police officers and break the law," Griffith added.
Griffith also mentioned another incident on Monday in which a police officer was recorded slapping a maxi taxi driver after he allegedly disobeyed the officer’s instructions not to drive through a flooded segment of the Priority Bus Route (PBR).
"He had to sprint to catch the maxi and based on that he operated in a manner that probably would not be becoming of a police officer," Griffith said, as he stated he would not take disciplinary action against the officer until he investigates the incident further.
Griffith was also critical of social media coverage of both incidents, which he claimed portrayed one-sided stories.
"Just as in UWI or the situation with the maxi taxi, we only start recording the parts when the police officer would have maybe gone overboard and not what really caused the situation in the first place," he said.
In addition to utilising the GEB in future scenarios, Griffith said the TTPS is moving to introduce a minimum use of force policy.
"It is not their fault. If police officers were not given the tools and training because that is how they would have operated in the past, I intend to rectify that," he said.
Under the policy, police officers would be trained on methods to diffuse situations, with the last resort being the use of deadly force. The policy includes the use of non-lethal weapons such as pepper spray, tasers and rubber bullets.
Griffith said the weapons would be issued to the newly-formed Emergency Response Unit after they received training on their appropriate use.
"I intend to put heavy emphasis on customer service training to ensure police officers understand that jump high jump low, I am not their boss, you are the bosses of the TTPS. We are here as servants to provide you with the courtesy and the safety you require and rightly deserve," he said.