Dear Editor,
Community Polic-ing Groups is a bright idea but as I have said before the concepts have to be widened. When I first started out as chairman of the Kitty policing group, I personally enjoyed my stint. The group had some seventy-five financial members and they all supported me as their leader. At the then time in 1992 the group was one of the better groups around. We were involved in community projects and were the first group to launch a pamphlet against Aids and drugs. The story was carried in the Trinidad press. All of the group members were recipients of food hampers at the end of the month, and each night the patrols were supplied with coffee and snacks. We had batons, jerseys, caps, handcuffs and road marking paint donated to us. My wife cooked for the members when we were involved in community projects. An end of year party was planned for the members with an award ceremony. All our patrols and arrests were documented. We completely grilled the Kitty lock ups, flushed the overflowing septic tank on two occasions, painted the Kitty Police Station once and donated stationery supplies once.
These were all my ideas, I actually tried to widen concepts and to encourage the members to stay but my leadership style was totally different from others. I was actually trying to get everyone involved.
The ideas I had could have brought into play a powerful organization that would have served the respective communities well, and possibly the communities could have been stronger today because we would have devised strategies to empower the citizens of each community that has a group. A vote of no confidence was unceremoniously moved against me by an influential member of the PPP. Mr Bhim Singh was voted in and we all know what took place. The group declined and the very influential person was demoted also.
Community policing will stagnate because of the people at the helm. I worked with both Mr Pompey and Mr David Ramnarine, they are top class officers and know a great lot about community policing. These two gentlemen are assets.
Yours faithfully
Tajpaul Gainda
