An­na-Lisa Paul

ASP Joanne Archie has again is­sued a warn­ing to po­lice of­fi­cers that cor­rupt and un­eth­i­cal be­hav­iour will not be tol­er­at­ed and if found to be en­gaged in such ac­tiv­i­ties, they will feel the full brunt of the law. The warn­ing fol­lowed on the heels of re­ports of a search car­ried out at the Va­len­cia Po­lice Post last week as one of­fi­cer was sus­pend­ed for al­leged mis­be­hav­iour in of­fice. Ad­dress­ing re­porters at the dai­ly po­lice brief­ing at Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing in Port-of-Spain on Fri­day, Archie said: "The Po­lice Ser­vice does not and will not con­done cor­rupt prac­tices by of­fi­cers. We are ready and will­ing to deal with any­one found to be do­ing that."

Urg­ing of­fi­cers to per­form their du­ties with re­spect for the cit­i­zen­ry as "re­spect begets re­spect," Archie said the ser­vice "will take any ac­tion it deems nec­es­sary to deal with of­fi­cers found to be en­gaged in cor­rupt acts." Archie urged mem­bers of the pub­lic to call the au­thor­i­ties us­ing fa­cil­i­ties such as 555 or 800-TIPS which keep the sources of in­for­ma­tion anony­mous.

She gave the as­sur­ance that the in­for­ma­tion would be treat­ed with the high­est lev­el of con­fi­den­tial­i­ty to en­sure that no one was vic­timised. Archie said of­fi­cers found to be en­gaged in cor­rup­tion bring the Po­lice Ser­vice in­to dis­re­pute, while al­so tar­nish­ing the good work be­ing done by hard work­ing men and women.