Marked and unmarked police vehicles will soon be outfitted with electronic registration plates in a bid to curb misuse.
This announcement was made by Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith during yesterday’s media conference at the Police Administration Building in Port-of-Spain.
Griffith explained that a chip will be inserted on the license plates of all police vehicles which will be linked to a global positioning system (GPS). “So there won’t be that problem where the license plates can be removed or replaced. The chip will also be linked to the engine chassis number and that is where all of the things will come together.”
“So we will have our specific personalized license plates, with the chip, and it will be linked to the vehicle. So if you have GPS in the vehicle going one direction but the license plate is going another, we would know that something is up,” Griffith said.
“So that is one of the many reasons, and it should have been done a long time ago, and I’ve been liaising with the Transport Commissioner and many things were needed to get here, and I have spoken to the Attorney General and hopefully this will be approved, and as soon as it is approved, with immediate effect we will alter all of the license plates,” he added.
A question was raised by a member of the media about marked vehicles that should have been sent to a scrapyard but is being used to escort people.
In answering Griffith disclosed that upon an audit done he discovered that some of those vehicles could not be located.
“Now when you have 1,700 vehicles scattered throughout the country...I actually did an audit and realized we could not locate some of these vehicles and that was when I realized something was wrong and this is when I took steps to make sure vehicles were not being misused and sidelined for the direction of certain persons.”
He pointed to a situation just about two years ago where police officers were using marked police vehicles to escorting people.
“I was involved in it and still involved in that investigation where you have all these Carnival fetes, in Chaguaramas, and if you hear a siren as soon as you encounter a police roadblock they let you pass. Not again.”
Griffith indicated that all escorts will be stopped and checked.
“We will stop you and check. Cause you will have a police vehicle flying past carrying two or three vehicles behind and then we would see persons of interest being escorted and slipping back in. So it is quite possible because of the current system, but I give the assurance to the public that this is no longer going to take place. We are going to pinpoint and target every single police vehicle marked and unmarked, and if anyone present or past, is involved in such acts, they will be dealt with accordingly.”— Rhondor Dowlat-Rostant