Camille Clarke

Po­lice pub­lic in­for­ma­tion of­fi­cer Sgt Wayne Mys­tar says mem­bers of the pub­lic should be on the look­out for crim­i­nals im­per­son­at­ing the po­lice with the aim of rob­bing them. Mys­tar was speak­ing at yes­ter­day's dai­ly news brief­ing at the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing, Port-of-Spain.

The warn­ing came in the wake of two re­ports that men dressed as po­lice of­fi­cers robbed peo­ple in Wood­brook and Mar­aval. On Tues­day, an 18-year-old man was robbed by two men dressed as po­lice of­fi­cers at his Gat­acre Street home in Wood­brook. A woman was al­so robbed by two men im­per­son­at­ing po­lice­men at her Lynch Dri­ve home in Mar­aval on Tues­day evening.

"We are ask­ing res­i­dents to be on the alert and in­form the po­lice if they are sus­pi­cious of any­one com­ing to their home iden­ti­fy­ing them­selves as po­lice of­fi­cers," Sgt Mys­tar said. He said the pub­lic can ask of­fi­cers who come to their home for iden­ti­fi­ca­tion.

"You can re­quest to see their iden­ti­fi­ca­tion card and look for dis­tin­guish­ing fea­tures. If you are sus­pi­cious, do not al­low them to en­ter the premis­es. You do have the right to pro­tect your­self and you can re­port the in­ci­dent." Mys­tar quot­ed Sec­tion 62 of the Po­lice Ser­vice Act 2006–Im­per­son­ation 62: "a per­son, oth­er than a po­lice of­fi­cer, who with­out the writ­ten au­thor­i­ty of the Com­mis­sion­er (a) puts on or as­sumes, ei­ther in whole or in part, the uni­form, name, des­ig­na­tion or de­scrip­tion of a po­lice of­fi­cer, or a uni­form, name, or des­ig­na­tion, re­sem­bling and in­tend­ed to re­sem­ble the uni­form, name or des­ig­na­tion of a po­lice of­fi­cer; "or (b) in any way pre­tends to be a po­lice of­fi­cer for any pur­pose which he would not by law be en­ti­tled to do of his own au­thor­i­ty, is li­able on sum­ma­ry con­vic­tion to a fine of $30,000 and to im­pris­on­ment of three years."