Acting Police Commissioner Stephen?Williams has made a public plea to citizens to still trust police officers in a bid restore the public's confidence in the T&T?Police Service (TTPS), following a incident where a police vehicle was used in the robbery Chinese national of $400,000 last week.
Speaking at the weekly police press briefing at the Police Administration Building in Port-of-Spain on Wednesday, Williams repeatedly admitted the TTPS's reputation had been serious impacted by last week's incident and similar recent cases in which police officers were accused of serious crimes.
"This morning is not one of those pleasant mornings for me. The TTPS as an organisation has taken a severe hit in the context of its image as it relates to police officers carrying out their lawful duties out there in serving the nation," William said.
As he referred to charges against Special Reserve Police (SRP) Shawn Joseph for last Friday's robbery, Williams assured the public that "clear, decisive and timely action" will be taken in each case in which officers are accused of committing crimes. Joseph is presumed innocent until the completion of his trial.
"Instances like these will be the exception and we will be doing everything possible to minimise the recurrence of events like the one I just described.
The TTPS will take a tough approach to any criminal conduct which is alleged against any police officer. The public is vesting trust in the TTPS and we must do nothing to undermine this," Williams said.
While Williams said he did not want to comment extensively on the case, Williams said other people suspected of the robbery were no police officers.
CCTV?camera footage of the incident, which was posted on the Facebook page of the TTPS's nightly television programme Beyond the Tape, showed a group of men, who appeared to be wearing police uniforms arriving at the businessman's home in a police vehicle at Soledad Road, Claxton Bay.
"The matter is being actively investigated and we can identify one police officer. I don't want us to go away with the assumption that all that you have seen in that video are police officers," he said.