Following the news from the United States that Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin had been found guilty on three charges for choking to death African-American bouncer George Floyd last May, Police Commissioner Gary Griffith said that police officers must bear some type of responsibility.
In an interview with another media house, Griffith said “A police officer is always a citizen first and must adhere to the laws in a country. He may have the authority to be able to commit certain actions to ensure laws are enforced but he cannot breach that threshold that will cause him to break a law.”
Griffith said TT has over 200 police officers who have actually been suspended or actually been charged for offences. “This has never been done before…We have now shifted to make sure police officers will not abuse their authority.”
He said if abuse does happen, there has never before been such good collaboration between the police and the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) as now.
The top Cop said he is pushing the envelope so that officers charged for committing acts such as murder, kidnapping, rape should be fired whilst charged.
“We are not perfect, police and citizens both have their jobs to do, but as you can see in comparison to other countries in the world we are in a much better place. We still have our work to do but in the last three years you have seen a drastic improvement,” he said.
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