An act­ing As­sis­tant Su­per­in­ten­dent of Po­lice (ASP) and a sergeant have been de­tained by of­fi­cers of the Pro­fes­sion­al Stan­dards Bu­reau (PSB) in con­nec­tion with al­le­ga­tions of cor­rup­tion.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that the two se­nior of­fi­cers were tak­en in­to cus­tody yes­ter­day to as­sist in­ves­ti­ga­tors cur­rent­ly prob­ing al­le­ga­tions of cor­rup­tion in the Firearm Sec­tion of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice.

Po­lice sources told Guardian Me­dia that the al­le­ga­tions stemmed from the on­go­ing au­dit at that sec­tion in re­la­tion to the grant­i­ng of Firearm Users Li­cens­es (FUL).

Late last year, it was re­vealed that a full and com­pre­hen­sive au­dit would be done in­to the process used by the Po­lice Ser­vice to is­sue firearms.

Since it com­menced, the Firearms Reg­istry has re­mained closed. How­ev­er, the hold­ers of gun li­cens­es have been placed on no­tice that they can be re­scind­ed if any wrong­do­ing is un­earthed.

In a Guardian Me­dia ar­ti­cle on No­vem­ber 30, 2021, it was re­port­ed that a six-mem­ber team, which com­prised three re­tired po­lice of­fi­cers and three serv­ing of­fi­cers, were giv­en three months to com­plete the au­dit and present their find­ings to the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil, which is chaired by Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley.

At a me­dia brief­ing at the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty in Port-of-Spain on No­vem­ber 29, 2021, Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds out­lined the back­ground against which this de­ci­sion was tak­en, as he not­ed there was “pub­lic dis­qui­et about the is­sues of li­cens­ing of firearms.”

The min­is­ter said the au­dit would pro­vide a snap­shot, “to see ex­act­ly where we are, how many li­censed firearms are out there, how many vari­a­tions, who has them, for what pur­pos­es, how much am­mu­ni­tion…these are mat­ters that will be re­vealed in the au­dit.”

Act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Mc Don­ald Ja­cob al­so con­firmed that the TTPS was con­duct­ing a crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion in re­la­tion to the firearms with­in the coun­try. Ja­cob said it was de­cid­ed that a thor­ough au­dit be done in­to the Firearms Sec­tion so they would know what ex­act­ly has been go­ing on in that di­vi­sion.

Asked to say if cur­rent FUL hold­ers could find their FULs be­ing re­scind­ed, Ja­cob said, “Def­i­nite­ly.”

He said Sec­tion 22 of the Firearms Act was clear on the as­pect of re­call as it re­lat­ed to firearms.

“If some­one vi­o­lates the use of that firearm as re­quired, the firearm can al­so be seized by the po­lice,” Ja­cob re­port­ed­ly said then.

Ja­cob said there have al­ways been pos­i­tive and neg­a­tive is­sues com­ing out of the Firearms Sec­tion and the speed with which some ap­pli­ca­tions had been grant­ed.

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