Richard Lord

For­mer head of the pub­lic ser­vice Regi­nald Du­mas says heads must roll over the al­leged se­cret es­tab­lish­ment of a re­vived Fly­ing Squad with­in the Po­lice Ser­vice.In an in­ter­view yes­ter­day, he said he was con­cerned about the de­vel­op­ment.He added: "If it is that some­body has act­ed out of the frame­work of his au­thor­i­ty, who­ev­er that per­son or per­sons should be, heads must roll.

"We like to sweep things un­der the car­pet and move on. We can't move on."He said the mat­ter if not prop­er­ly dealt with could dam­age or even de­stroy in­sti­tu­tions.Du­mas said the di­rec­tor of the Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty, Gillian Lucky, "should launch a se­ri­ous in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to this mat­ter and should be in touch with the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion."

He said he was sure the Gov­ern­ment would not set up a com­mis­sion of en­quiry to in­ves­ti­gate the mat­ter but was con­fi­dent Lucky would do a rapid in­ves­ti­ga­tion and the re­sults should be make pub­lic.He added: "Who­ev­er has stepped out of line for what­ev­er rea­son, must pay the price. Heads must fly over the ground­ed Fly­ing Squad."

Du­mas said the re­vamped squad "looks like some kind of ex­tra-le­gal group­ing that is op­er­at­ing here. This is very dis­turb­ing be­cause what is com­ing out of the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty does not en­gen­der con­fi­dence."Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er has re­peat­ed­ly de­nied such a unit ex­ist­ed.Re­tired po­lice in­spec­tor Mervyn Cord­ner told the T&T Guardian on Feb­ru­ary 1 the unit had been in op­er­a­tion since Ju­ly last year.

He al­so re­vealed the com­pa­ny which pro­vid­ed ve­hi­cles to the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty al­so pro­vid­ed ve­hi­cles for that unit.Du­mas said de­spite the of­fi­cial de­nial more in­for­ma­tion was be­ing re­leased to sup­port Cord­ner's claim."This is re­al­ly fright­en­ing for the rule of law in this coun­try and our in­sti­tu­tions," he added.

He said T&T might be head­ing to­wards be­com­ing a po­lice state if peo­ple were not re­port­ing to the au­tho­rised in­sti­tu­tions but to cer­tain in­di­vid­u­als and such a unit could be com­pared to the Mon­goose Gang in Grena­da and the Chim�res in Haiti.Du­mas said, based on re­ports, Deputy Com­mis­sion­er Mervyn Richard­son re­port­ed­ly met with the unit and must be aware of its ex­is­tence.

"So we be­gin to won­der what in God's name is hap­pen­ing in our ser­vices? These are the pro­tec­tive ser­vices. Whom are they pro­tect­ing?" he asked.Du­mas said the pop­u­la­tion should know whether act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Stephen Williams was be­ing "kept in the dark" about the unit.Williams has said he was not aware of the unit and would launch an in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

Du­mas said all cit­i­zens should be con­cerned about the mat­ter and the facts must be re­vealed to the pub­lic.