An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) has be­gun train­ing of­fi­cers who will take part in op­er­a­tions un­der the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Act, as well as those who will lead teams when the act comes in­to ef­fect.

The first co­hort of 41 First Di­vi­sion of­fi­cers, from the rank of su­per­in­ten­dent to deputy com­mis­sion­er of po­lice, is cur­rent­ly train­ing at the Po­lice Acad­e­my in St James. A sec­ond co­hort of 42 of­fi­cers will train from No­vem­ber 2 to 4.

Head of the TTPS Le­gal Unit, ASP Ram­dath Phillip, con­firmed the train­ing dur­ing a me­dia brief­ing at the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day.

Asked when and how the law would come in­to force, Phillip stressed: “I want to re­it­er­ate the point that the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Act is not an Act that can be au­to­mat­i­cal­ly utilised by the po­lice.

“It is now in our law books and there are cer­tain cri­te­ria and thresh­olds for us to meet in or­der for the Pres­i­dent to is­sue an or­der for the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Act to take ef­fect.”

He said the TTPS was ad­dress­ing leg­isla­tive hur­dles that had arisen.

“We have a sit­u­a­tion where a num­ber of is­sues have arisen in re­la­tion to the act and we are work­ing on them for a smooth roll­out, should the Act be called up­on or should we as the po­lice, be called up­on to in­sti­tute the piece of leg­is­la­tion.”

Phillip said the train­ing was part of the TTPS’s com­pli­ance work un­der the act and would cov­er “cer­tain ar­eas of law and gen­er­al polic­ing that po­lice of­fi­cers must be fa­mil­iar with and must be trained in.”

He said the ser­vice was prepar­ing for the act’s im­ple­men­ta­tion, should the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice con­sid­er it nec­es­sary and the Pres­i­dent is­sue an or­der bring­ing it in­to ef­fect.

Phillip ac­knowl­edged that two days of train­ing were not enough, but said the pro­gramme would con­tin­ue.

“It is a start,” he said.

Asked to ex­plain the is­sues that had arisen, he said the TTPS had re­viewed the act and was work­ing through op­er­a­tional re­quire­ments.

“The law says X and we as the law en­forcers or the pri­ma­ry law en­force­ment agency has to work out what the law has and en­sure that our ac­tiv­i­ties fall with­in the leg­is­la­tion.”

Phillip said Sec­tion 11 of the act out­lines the cir­cum­stances in which a re­port must be pre­pared and sub­mit­ted to the Prime Min­is­ter, who would then for­ward it to the Pres­i­dent to is­sue an or­der bring­ing the Act in­to ef­fect.

“So every­thing that is list­ed un­der Sec­tion 11 of the Act is what will be tak­en in­to con­sid­er­a­tion and put in­to a re­port for the com­mis­sion­er to send for­ward. As I in­di­cat­ed, it is not an au­to­mat­ic piece of leg­is­la­tion.”