Recordings not to be feared, says Brathwaite
ATTORNEY General and Minister of Home Affairs, Adriel Brathwaite, believes that officers should not fear video of themselves being recorded on cell phones by members of the public.
He was speaking to the media recently on the sidelines of an anti-money laundering workshop, where he stated: “What I have said to the Commissioner [of Police] and his team is that we need to train our officers not to be afraid of cell phones. If you are doing your job as you are supposed to, then the video is your friend. They need not be afraid of them. Just do what they are supposed to do.”
His comments came against the backdrop of a recent video circulating which made its rounds on social media, showing a traffic stop and a tense exchange between an officer, a driver and a passenger. The AG, while stressing that he did not wish to speculate without the whole exchange being recorded or shown, said: “The other guy was keeping lots of noise about ‘don’t search my vehicle; you don’t have a right to search my vehicle’. I would have to assume that if a police officer stops a vehicle, there has to be some basis for which the police officer decides ‘let us stop this vehicle’.”
Brathwaite, responding to the request by the passenger of the vehicle to be taken to the police station rather than searched, said: “...Now, a bit of common sense... Would you put somebody in your vehicle behind you without patting them down to see if they have a weapon? Would that make sense that the police cannot search someone, but put them in the police vehicle?”
The Attorney General said persons who have a grievance with an officer should go to the Police Complaints Authority in Wildey, but noted that most of the reports he has seen have been trivial. “I am not saying that police are from Utopia or some of the things you hear are not true, all I am saying is that the police complaints that I have received, I receive a monthly report, are mostly trivial in nature.”
He also assured that officers undergo continuous sensitivity training. (JH)