RHON­DOR DOWLAT

Weeks af­ter two se­nior po­lice of­fi­cers were de­tained by of­fi­cers of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice’s Pro­fes­sion­al Stan­dards Bu­reau, an­oth­er se­nior po­lice of­fi­cer has been de­tained in con­nec­tion with al­le­ga­tions of mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic of­fice.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that an as­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice was de­tained fol­low­ing in­for­ma­tion re­ceived by in­ves­ti­ga­tors that he al­leged­ly cor­rupt­ly is­sued a Firearm Users Li­cense and a siren for his car to a mem­ber of the T&T De­fence Force.

Ear­li­er this month, an act­ing as­sis­tant su­per­in­ten­dent and a sergeant were al­so in­ter­viewed in con­nec­tion with al­le­ga­tions of cor­rup­tion con­cern­ing the grant­i­ng of FULs.

The two se­nior of­fi­cers were tak­en in­to cus­tody on May 3 to as­sist in­ves­ti­ga­tors who are cur­rent­ly prob­ing al­le­ga­tions of cor­rup­tion in the Firearm Sec­tion of the T&TPS.

Po­lice sources yes­ter­day told Guardian Me­dia that the al­le­ga­tions stemmed from the on­go­ing au­dit in the grant­i­ng of firearms li­cens­es in the sec­tion.

Late last year, it was re­vealed that a full and com­pre­hen­sive au­dit would be con­duct­ed in­to the process used by the TTPS to is­sue firearms dat­ing back decades. Since it start­ed, the Firearms Reg­istry re­mains closed. How­ev­er, FUL hold­ers have been placed on no­tice that the li­cens­es can be re­scind­ed if any wrong­do­ing is un­earthed.

A six-mem­ber team, com­pris­ing three re­tired of­fi­cers and three serv­ing of­fi­cers, were giv­en three months in which 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, in not­ing why the probe was start­ed, said it was against a back­drop of “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 they were al­so con­duct­ing a crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion as it re­lates to the firearms with­in the coun­try. He said it was de­cid­ed that a thor­ough au­dit be done so they would know what ex­act­ly has been go­ing on in the di­vi­sion.