Over 90 percent reduction in non-appearance of police officers in Court cases

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Over 90 percent reduction in non-appearance of police officers in Court cases

The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) says there has been a significant improvement in court attendance by police complainants in 2020.

The TTPS notes an article published in the Newsday on Sunday 25th October, 2020. The article cited the number of court cases which were dismissed in 2019 due to the non-appearance of police complainants.

The figures were part of the Police Service Commission’s (PSC) annual report which was laid in Parliament on October 5.

There were 270 cases dismissed for the first three quarters of 2020. A vast improvement compared to 1,050 for the same period last year, which contributed to the total number of dismissed cases of 1,843 for 2019.

The TTPS is confident that there will be a vast improvement in 2020, based on the figures recorded in the first three quarters:

 191 cases were dismissed during the period January to March, 2020 – 51% decrease from the previous year.
 Eight cases were dismissed during the period April to July, 2020 – 97.5% decrease from the previous year.
 71 cases were dismissed during the period July to September, 2020 – 91% decrease from the previous year.

Commissioner of Police, Gary Griffith, remains committed to decreasing complainant absenteeism and has already overseen the implementation of several initiatives that will achieve this, including:

 An increase in the number of staff allocated to the prosecuting
section.

 Engagement of the Senior Superintendents to intervene in the case of errant complainants within their respective Divisions.

 The institution of disciplinary procedures.

 Assistance for complainants, where needed.

The CoP said he is confident that these will improve the court attendance of police complainants, resulting in less cases being dismissed moving forward.

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