A con­fronta­tion be­tween an of­fi­cer of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) and an air­port se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cer dur­ing a State of Emer­gency (SoE) road ex­er­cise is now un­der in­ves­ti­ga­tion by the po­lice.

A video of the in­ci­dent has gone vi­ral on so­cial me­dia.

In the record­ing, a TTPS of­fi­cer was heard telling the air­port se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cer to “show some re­spect.”

Re­ports in­di­cate that the se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cer was at­tempt­ing to in­form the po­lice of­fi­cer that the road was a one-way street when the dis­agree­ment es­ca­lat­ed.

How­ev­er, se­nior of­fi­cers at the Arou­ca Po­lice Sta­tion said of­fi­cers have a right to car­ry out their du­ties and are ful­ly aware of their sur­round­ings.

A se­nior of­fi­cer added that they would ap­pre­ci­ate it if they had the full sup­port and re­spect of the pub­lic at large in the ex­e­cu­tion of their du­ties, es­pe­cial­ly dur­ing the cur­rent SoE.

How­ev­er, the se­nior of­fi­cer said an in­ves­ti­ga­tion had been launched in­to the in­ci­dent.

When con­tact­ed on the in­ci­dent, Es­tate Po­lice As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Deryck Richard­son down­played it, say­ing it was a mi­nor mis­un­der­stand­ing.

“The air­port se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cer was sim­ply in­form­ing the po­lice of­fi­cer that the road was one-way. It seems the of­fi­cer re­act­ed to the ex­change, but it was blown out of pro­por­tion on so­cial me­dia,” Richard­son said.

He em­pha­sised that the re­la­tion­ship be­tween the TTPS and es­tate po­lice re­mains strong and this in­ci­dent does not re­flect any broad­er is­sues.

“We have al­ways main­tained a good re­la­tion­ship with the po­lice ser­vice. Our of­fi­cers un­der­stand their du­ties and re­spon­si­bil­i­ties, and we ful­ly sup­port any ini­tia­tive to up­hold law and or­der,” he said.

Richard­son al­so ad­vised se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cers and the pub­lic to re­main vig­i­lant and act with­in their train­ing. — Rhon­dor Dowlat