KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

The T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) is re­port­ing ear­ly signs of suc­cess from its new School-Ori­ent­ed Polic­ing Unit (SOPU), with of­fi­cers em­bed­ded in 50 high-risk schools.

Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Ju­nior Ben­jamin told Guardian Me­dia that since the ini­tia­tive was launched last month in part­ner­ship with the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, fights have de­creased and re­spons­es to vi­o­lence have be­come faster. In ad­di­tion to sta­tioned of­fi­cers, ten sec­ondary and ten pri­ma­ry schools are be­ing mon­i­tored through rou­tine pa­trols.

Al­ready this term, po­lice have re­spond­ed to sev­er­al trou­bling in­ci­dents. On Sep­tem­ber 17, a 13-year-old Form One stu­dent at Coryal Sec­ondary was charged with pos­ses­sion of mar­i­jua­na for the pur­pose of traf­fick­ing. Ear­li­er, a fight be­tween a fe­male stu­dent and a teacher was filmed and wide­ly shared on­line, prompt­ing a Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

That same day, a par­ent al­leged­ly slapped a stu­dent out­side the com­pound, claim­ing the child had at­tacked his son. Two days lat­er, at Preysal Sec­ondary, a Form Three stu­dent locked a po­lice of­fi­cer in­side a class­room for about 30 min­utes af­ter toss­ing away the key while the of­fi­cer was asleep.

So far, on­ly two in­ci­dents have re­sult­ed in charges: one for drug pos­ses­sion and one for pos­ses­sion of a knife.

De­spite the chal­lenges, Ben­jamin said of­fi­cers are build­ing trust with stu­dents and staff.

“Most per­sons are re­al­ly pleased with the work the po­lice are do­ing and the pres­ence of of­fi­cers in schools, see­ing that we are there to en­sure a safer en­vi­ron­ment for our stu­dents to come and learn,” he said.

He added that vis­i­ble po­lice pres­ence is help­ing re­store dis­ci­pline. “There will be times when stu­dents might want to be­have un­ruly to­wards teach­ers. The pres­ence of of­fi­cers is help­ing in that re­gard to en­sure a high­er lev­el of dis­ci­pline.”

Ben­jamin not­ed that videos of fights on school com­pounds have de­clined, though some dis­putes may now be mov­ing out­side school grounds.

“Any re­duc­tion we are grate­ful for, and we will con­tin­ue to look at it. But we want to en­sure it’s not just about po­lice of­fi­cers, but about pos­i­tive changes in stu­dents’ be­hav­iour,” he said, adding that com­mu­ni­ty po­lice are en­gag­ing stu­dents through men­tor­ship and talks.

The Deputy Com­mis­sion­er be­lieves sus­tained ex­po­sure to the pro­gramme could trans­form school cul­ture over time, even­tu­al­ly mak­ing po­lice pres­ence un­nec­es­sary.

How­ev­er, the ini­tia­tive is still un­der re­view. T&T Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) pres­i­dent Mar­tin Lum Kin said more time is need­ed to prop­er­ly gauge its im­pact.

“We have been get­ting a mixed re­ac­tion. Some prin­ci­pals have said it has made a dif­fer­ence. Oth­ers are not yet at the point where they can say if it is ac­tu­al­ly work­ing,” Lum Kin said.

He al­so not­ed that prin­ci­pals and TTUTA have re­peat­ed­ly re­quest­ed op­er­a­tional guide­lines for po­lice in schools, but the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion has yet to pro­vide them.

Na­tion­al Coun­cil of Par­ent Teacher As­so­ci­a­tions (NPTA) pres­i­dent Wal­ter Stew­art agreed that it is too ear­ly for a full as­sess­ment, but said ear­ly feed­back points to im­proved safe­ty and calm. He cau­tioned, how­ev­er, that vi­o­lence has not dis­ap­peared from schools with po­lice present.

Stew­art said the NPTA will vis­it sev­er­al high-risk schools in Oc­to­ber to ob­serve the ini­tia­tive’s roll­out and make rec­om­men­da­tions.

“On­go­ing di­a­logue, clear role de­f­i­n­i­tions, and trust-build­ing among par­ents, teach­ers, po­lice, and stu­dents are es­sen­tial if this ini­tia­tive is to suc­ceed,” he said.