An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) has launched an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to a vi­ral video show­ing a man al­leged­ly ver­bal­ly and phys­i­cal­ly abus­ing a woman while dri­ving reck­less­ly.

The vic­tim has since filed a for­mal re­port at the Cou­va Po­lice Sta­tion. The in­ci­dent, which was cap­tured on a dash­cam dur­ing the ear­ly hours of Sep­tem­ber 24, is be­ing in­ves­ti­gat­ed by WPC Per­sad of the Re­gion Two Spe­cial Vic­tims Unit.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, the TTPS said, “State­ments are be­ing record­ed and the mat­ter is re­ceiv­ing the TTPS’s full at­ten­tion.”

The TTPS al­so ap­pealed to the pub­lic to stop shar­ing the video “in the in­ter­est of the vic­tim’s dig­ni­ty and pri­va­cy.”

In the footage, the man is heard shout­ing ob­scen­i­ties and al­leged­ly strik­ing the woman while dri­ving in what ap­peared to be a dan­ger­ous and er­rat­ic man­ner. The woman is heard at­tempt­ing to calm and re­as­sure him.

Ad­dress­ing women who may be ex­pe­ri­enc­ing such sit­u­a­tions, the TTPS re­mind­ed the pub­lic that “abuse is not lim­it­ed to phys­i­cal vi­o­lence.”

“Threats, in­tim­i­da­tion, in­sults and con­trol­ling be­hav­iour are al­so forms of abuse, and no one should have to en­dure them,” the po­lice said.

The TTPS urged vic­tims to suf­fer in si­lence.

“Make a re­port at any po­lice sta­tion or Spe­cial Vic­tims Unit, and al­low the po­lice to ad­dress the mat­ter,” the state­ment said.

The po­lice added that of­fi­cers are trained to re­spond to do­mes­tic vi­o­lence cas­es with sen­si­tiv­i­ty and con­fi­den­tial­i­ty and en­cour­aged vic­tims to seek sup­port from some­one they trust.

“Let a friend, fam­i­ly mem­ber or col­league know what you are ex­pe­ri­enc­ing. A trust­ed con­fi­dant can sup­port you, check on your well-be­ing, and seek help on your be­half if need­ed.”

The TTPS al­so ad­vised vic­tims to de­vel­op a safe­ty plan by keep­ing im­por­tant doc­u­ments, a phone and emer­gency con­tact num­bers read­i­ly ac­ces­si­ble. It fur­ther rec­om­mend­ed es­tab­lish­ing a code word with a trust­ed per­son to sig­nal when help is need­ed.

Vic­tims were en­cour­aged to keep records of threat­en­ing mes­sages, voice notes, pho­tographs or videos where it is safe to do so, as these may as­sist po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

The TTPS al­so re­mind­ed vic­tims that they may ap­ply to the Mag­is­trates’ Court for a Pro­tec­tion Or­der un­der the Do­mes­tic Vi­o­lence Act.

“If you are in im­me­di­ate dan­ger, call 999,” the state­ment said.

“The TTPS re­minds the pub­lic that do­mes­tic vi­o­lence is a crime, and that help is avail­able. Your safe­ty mat­ters,” the TTPS added.

Per­sons seek­ing as­sis­tance can con­tact the Spe­cial Vic­tims De­part­ment at 612-0102, ex­ten­sions 16064 to 16068; the Na­tion­al Do­mes­tic Vi­o­lence Hot­line at 800-SAVE (7283); or Crime Stop­pers at 800-TIPS (8477).