(Trinidad Guardian) Just back from New Orleans where she attended an international civilian protection conference, Chairman of the Police Complaints Authority Gillian Lucky has unveiled plans for new protocols to govern the conduct of police officers. The new protocols will guide officers as they deal with situations involving minors, disabled people, victims of police shootings and state of emergency incidents. Lucky, who spoke with reporters after addressing students of Fyzabad Secondary School on Friday, said all allegations of misconduct by police officers during the state of emergency would be conducted fairly. “The Police Complaints Authority is an independent body and our remit enables us to investigate allegations of police brutality or the excessive use of force,” she said.
She added that over the past 12 days, she attended a National Association of Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement conference in New Orleans where she shared non-specific information about local issues. “I informed them that we are under a state of emergency and one of the first questions they asked was what are the protocols in terms of powers under the state of emergency as it relates to the population,” Lucky said. “I pointed out that there is no protocol and we are just following the basic rules.” She added that a major challenge facing T&T was the need to establish procedures and protocols to govern police conduct. “Our standing orders must be revised and revisited along with departmental orders dealing with, not only the use of force in a state of emergency, but also in regular circumstances,” Lucky said.
She added that another big issue facing the Police Service was the killing of civilians by police officers. “The point was made that we need to have protocols in all of the jurisdictions dealing with how we treat with police shootings of civilians,” she said. “It is interesting that in some American jurisdictions it is a step-by-step procedure and it is time in T&T that we implement such a system. “We need to ensure that the matters are independently investigated and in that respect the Police Complaints Authority has a very big role to play.” Asked how long it would take before such protocols were prepared, Lucky said she had given her team three months to prepare the documents. She said copies of each protocol would be issued to the Police Service Commission, the Commissioner of Police, Director of Public Prosecutions and the public for consultation.
