Dear Editor,
While at the Suddie Police Station over the holiday weekend at the invitation of a good friend who was arrested by a traffic corporal and whose hire car was impounded, there was a wrangling between the officer and the station sergeant in public, with the officer demonstrating insubordination to the sergeant. Fortunately the driver was not involved in an accident, and a breathalyzer test showed ‘zero’, but he was alleged to have caused an obstruction by not parking his vehicle in a proper manner.
The arresting corporal did not want to release the driver on bail and instead wanted him incarcerated, but this move was opposed by the station sergeant who insisted that it would be wrong to do so as the offence was a minor one and did not warrant incarceration. The driver remained in custody at the enquiries office for a long time with me when it flashed through my mind to make contact with the Commander in the matter, but as it turned out his contact number was not at the station.
It would help significantly in providing a better service to the community if prompt contact could be made with the Commander for his intervention on the way forward. Communication links must be seen as vitally important, and for this reason it would be useful for the Minister of Public Security to make it compulsory for contact numbers for senior ranks in Region 2 to be placed conspicuously at stations in the district for the benefit of members of the public.
The station sergeant must be commended for his exemplary action in confining his operations within the ambit of the law.
Yours faithfully,
Baliram Persaud
