Deputy Police Commissioner Jack Ewatski is not surprised that the Police Service Social and Welfare Association is trying to stop the 21st-century policing pilot project. The association plans to file an injunction in the High Court against the project this week. Affidavits are expected to be submitted today. In a one-on-one interview with the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian, Ewatski said: "Nothing surprises me anymore." He strongly defended the initiative insisting that the days of police officers sleeping in stations and using government vehicles for private business are over. On March 21, the association served Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs with a three-page pre-action protocol letter which accused him of "bullying" officers to work beyond their stipulated working hours and taking "unilateral actions" which were "oppressive and illegal."
Gibbs was also accused of introducing working arrangements, under the umbrella of the 21st-century policing initiative, that were inconsistent with service regulations and memoranda of understanding agreed to in 1984 and 2001. The letter also stated that members had not agreed to any variation in their terms and conditions, and that any agreement was limited to the project in Western Division, which had run its course. But Ewatski, the Deputy CoP in charge of Operations, said from the very inception of the project, the association was invited to air its concerns. The result, he said, was that: "They spoke in generalities in the past about having some concerns relative to the 21st-century policing initiative, and when we asked them to be specific about it, they have not been specific. "So now this letter that has been served clarifies some of these concerns apparently," he added. Ewatski said monthly meetings were also held with the association and if there were issues deemed "urgent," they could be addressed in advance.
The project, he said, had achieved much, noting that there was a significant decrease in crime in the "hot-spot" area of the Western Division, where the initiative was launched on April 20, 2011. "People may say that the state of emergency had something to do with it-but that's not even counting the state of emergency," he said. "We also realise the public in Western Division was pleased with seeing the police much more than they did in the past. "They were pleased with the level of interaction that they had with the police when they went to the police station...the professionalism that was shown, the customer service that was shown. "Many people came up to me and said they noticed a difference." This, he added, was the type of policing that people were demanding. Some senior officers claimed they had reduced crime in the division even before Gibbs or Ewatski assumed office in 2010.
Saying this was one of the "many rumours" he had heard, Ewatski added: "I do not know whether or not crime was decreasing to any significant degree-but during the period of the pilot project, crime has decreased at a fairly significant level in Western Division, across the board." The project was also expanded to Central Division where it was launched at the Cunupia Police Station in February this year. Positive results from that area, Ewatski added, had also led to a general transformation of the Police Service. "Tobago has only been up and running for a short number of weeks," Ewatski said. He said they would continue to look at the impact the new deployment method was having on "our ability to be more effective and more efficient."
Tracking system for police vehicles
Ewatski said some Police Service vehicles had already been outfitted with the Global Positioning System (GPS). He added that the device would soon be placed in all vehicles. This would make the police more accountable, he said. "During a particular period, we could monitor how long a patrol car has been patrolling," Ewatski said. "On top of that, we could generate reports to show exactly where a patrol vehicle was moving within the division, how often it was parked somewhere-so that accountability aspect is built into this initiative." This, he said, would give the public greater confidence that the police were actually working.
"We get on a daily report, the activity logs of our police officers, and they have to account for their time while they are on duty," he said. "While they are on their shift, they have to account for everything they do, including their patrol time." He said those records must also be justified by supervisors and divisional commanders.
Deployment methods
The basis of the 21st-century pilot initiative is, in effect, deployment methods. "I do not know any police agency in any developed country that deploys their officers in a manner that we do here in Trinidad and Tobago in the divisions where the initiative is not yet operational," Ewatski said. If the country wanted to move towards a modern Police Service, he insisted, contemporary techniques must be embraced. He also defended the conversion of the Four Roads and Carenage police stations into "service centres" that operate from 9 am to 9 pm. He said this allowed more officers to be out on the streets patrolling and able to respond to trouble calls more rapidly. "In the service centres, we have a very small staffing level because they only have to be open 12 hours a day and when they are open you only have about three police working in that centre and sometimes even less, sometimes even one police officer and two of our police support police officers." Ewatski said. Support officers are retired officers who have been brought back into the Police Service on contract.
Ewatski added that there was also no need now for the public to always come to the police. He said: "They could phone us. We would come to them. That is how modern policing works." Increased patrols and heightened police visibility, he said, also led to more criminals being caught, including those trying to escape from a crime scene. "That's the basic foundation of this deployment model...We need to get our officers out of the stations," he said. "Police officers do not come to a station and spend the majority of time in the station in modern police organisations." He said the decision to operate the service centres during limited opening hours was made on the basis of demand. "When we chose the time to close those stations for 12-hour periods, we looked at when people were actually coming into those stations," he said. "Very few people were coming and accessing those services after 9 pm. "So to run an efficient Police Service we need to look at being able to rationalise our services. "Why would we want to have those stations open when there's nobody coming?"
Can this approach be justified when crime happens round the clock?" Ewatski said the increased patrols acted as a deterrent. "It's not as if we have abandoned those areas...The patrol officers have a greater presence and a greater ability to respond," he added. Saying he knew the public still complained about poor police response, he insisted that for the most part, the new deployment method was working. "I am not going to be naive...Sometimes there is still a delay, a lag in being able to respond," Ewatski said. "We are going to continue to work on that, because we are going to continue to sensitise the public that is the type of service we can provide. "And we have to continue to reinforce in our police officers that when somebody calls, we will come to them."
Breaks staggered
Patrol officers are allowed meal and rest breaks but Ewatski was adamant that there would be no sleeping in stations. "We stagger our breaks to always ensure we do have officers out on the street," he said. "But for anyone to think that our officers were working 12 hours without any type of break-that is absolutely incorrect." Quiet rooms, he said, had replaced dormitories. "When officers take their break, it isn't a sleep break...I am not aware of any police agency in a developed country that pays their officers to sleep," he said. "That doesn't happen, and I think the public and our police officers know that. "Policing is not the type of profession that you could come to a station and sleep and get paid for it." He said a minority of officers were not dedicated and therefore resisted change. "Change can be challenging, change can be threatening and change can be very uncomfortable," Ewatski said. "But we're asking our police officers to embrace this change because there is a need to change. "If we don't change the way we deliver our policing services, we're going to expect the same results."
The letter
The pre-action protocol letter claimed breaches of the regulations were:
1. Police drivers have to drive for more than four hours without being allowed to rest, and this violates regulations and international best practice.
2. Officers were rostered for four consecutive workdays, so that they worked in excess of the stipulated 40 hours by the end of the fourth day.
3. Members called out on their rest days were threatened with disciplinary action if they failed to report for duty.
4. Payment of overtime breached the MOU.
5. Members who received commuted overtime pay were being bullied to work hours which were "not within the spirit" of the 12 hours per week agreed under the MOU.
6. Extra meal allowances were not being paid.