ELIZ­A­BETH GON­ZA­LES

GML To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

To­ba­go po­lice are grow­ing frus­trat­ed with mo­torists who alert dri­vers about road traf­fic ex­er­cis­es.

They say this prac­tise is hin­der­ing their ef­forts to re­duce mur­ders and oth­er se­ri­ous crimes.

Speak­ing at a town hall meet­ing on Tues­day night, Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent Rod­hill Kirk not­ed that cit­i­zens are us­ing tech­nol­o­gy to work against the po­lice, in­stead of us­ing those same meth­ods to help with the fight against crime.

Dur­ing the meet­ing, he played sev­er­al voice-notes from dif­fer­ent mo­torists which were shared in a so­cial me­dia app, warn­ing oth­er dri­vers about po­lice road­blocks and an­ti-crime ex­er­cis­es at dif­fer­ent lo­ca­tions.

“So, you see what is hap­pen­ing,” he said, “every move the po­lice make.  The crim­i­nals are us­ing the tech­nol­o­gy as well.”

“We are try­ing to make you [the pub­lic] safe, and every ef­fort we try to do out there, they are see­ing us, and they are spread­ing the word,” he added.

Snr Supt Kirk is­sued a chal­lenge to To­bag­o­ni­ans to use the tech­nol­o­gy in­stead to alert po­lice when crim­i­nals are spot­ted.

“Let us form a group called ‘Spot­light on the Crim­i­nals’, and we will say every­where we see a crim­i­nal, and that will help the po­lice,” the se­nior To­ba­go cop said. 

He added: “We al­ways tell you, ‘If you see some­thing, say some­thing’.  This is a way you could say some­thing, too.  Just as they are do­ing this against us, let us do it against them.”