SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Se­nior In­ves­tiga­tive Re­porter

shal­iza.has­sanali

@guardian.co.tt

For greater trans­paren­cy and ac­count­abil­i­ty, all T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) firearms used in ex­tra ju­di­cial killings will be sent for test­ing at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre (FSC). This will be done with im­me­di­ate ef­fect.

The new pol­i­cy was is­sued by DCP In­tel­li­gence and In­ves­ti­ga­tions Suzette Mar­tin to Ju­nior Ben­jamin, DCP of Op­er­a­tions in an in­ter­nal memo dat­ed No­vem­ber 13 ti­tled “Ap­point­ment to be made at FSC to analyse TTPS firearms used in po­lice-in­volved shoot­ings.”

The memo ob­tained by the Sun­day Guardian stat­ed that as a re­sult of dis­cus­sions held with the Di­rec­tor of FSC Der­rick Sankar, ACP Curt Si­mon, Crim­i­nal Di­vi­sion and Sen Supt in charge of Homi­cide In­ves­ti­ga­tion Bu­reau, Sean Dhill­paul, “a de­ci­sion was made that with im­me­di­ate ef­fect, all firearms be­long­ing to the TTPS and used in po­lice-in­volved shoot­ing, af­ter hav­ing gone to Spe­cial Ev­i­dence Re­cov­ery Unit, the firearm should then be tak­en to FSC to be test fired af­ter an ap­point­ment date is re­ceived from the FSC.”

The memo ad­vised that once an in­ves­ti­ga­tor has been as­signed to in­ves­ti­gate a re­port of a po­lice-in­volved shoot­ing, he or she must make an ap­point­ment with FSC “to have the firearm test fired.” Once this process is done, the weapon must be re­turned to the TTPS sec­tion where it is as­signed, Mar­tin said.

The memo stat­ed that should any of­fi­cer en­counter chal­lenges at the FSC con­cern­ing the in­struc­tions hand­ed down, they can con­tact Mar­tin via her cell phone or email.

Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day about the new di­rec­tive, Mar­tin said the mea­sure was en­forced to fast-track in­ves­ti­ga­tions and for greater trans­paren­cy. She said there were sev­er­al “out­stand­ing fa­tal (po­lice) mat­ters to be com­plet­ed. And then you have more firearms go­ing for stor­age there...we arranged with the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre to speed up the in­ves­ti­ga­tions to show trans­paren­cy and ac­count­abil­i­ty.”

This year, more than 40 civil­ians have been fa­tal­ly shot by the po­lice.