On Patrol - Episode 7 Journey Through the Hills of Port of Spain East

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On Patrol - Episode 7 Journey Through the Hills of Port of Spain East
Transcript
00:00 (dramatic music)
00:03 (dramatic music)
00:06 (dramatic music)
00:09 (dramatic music)
00:12 (dramatic music)
00:14 (dramatic music)
00:17 (dramatic music)
00:20 - We're going on a journey with the IATF,
00:22 the Interagency Task Force, where we're looking at
00:24 some very instrumental work they're doing
00:26 in order to keep the peace.
00:28 We're going on a foot patrol with On Patrol.
00:30 I'm Robert Dumas.
00:31 (upbeat music)
00:49 - This property you see in here,
00:51 that's the success Lavant Hill School.
00:53 So there's some conflict going on for some time now
00:55 between the people up at this area
00:57 and the people down at that area, right?
00:59 So you find that over a period of time,
01:01 they were running across the road,
01:02 tit for tat, shooting at each other.
01:04 Well, since we have instituted some additional patrols,
01:08 and well, we do some outreach programs,
01:10 some community outreach program
01:11 to find out what the problem is.
01:13 Within the last year, it have reduced drastically.
01:16 - Everything cool, though?
01:17 - Everything, yes, everything all right.
01:18 - Well, you have a nice day.
01:20 - And we are to keep talking to the youths.
01:22 - Of course.
01:23 - We know where the conflicts are, right?
01:24 We know where the conflicts come from.
01:27 We try to go in between the conflicting groups of people.
01:31 We try to put ourselves in between there.
01:33 We go through the tracks,
01:34 because if you watch how here constructed,
01:36 it's not a very planned area, right?
01:38 So nobody really use the road to perpetrate the crime.
01:42 What they do, they use the tracks, right?
01:44 So we try to terminate the tracks.
01:47 We try to go through the tracks and search people that we see.
01:50 (upbeat music)
01:53 - So what would you say is the relationship
02:08 between generally the Southern police and the police?
02:16 - Because there seems to be a respect,
02:19 especially when IETF is all wrong.
02:22 - And when you hear the two of them laugh and cry,
02:27 you know about that?
02:29 - What would you say about that?
02:32 - For people to actually get to know you,
02:33 it takes about two years.
02:35 Two years on the ground,
02:37 not just two years on the base or in our base.
02:40 It actually takes two years to engage the community,
02:44 let them know who you are,
02:46 whether you would be a police unknown oneself,
02:49 police in terms of arrest,
02:51 or they might say, "Who is this officer, Dumas?"
02:54 Nah, we're not transporting any drugs.
02:57 They've got Dumas out there.
02:59 He's going to search everything.
03:01 So once you have that respect like these officers here,
03:04 everything comes easy.
03:07 But let's say it's a new generation.
03:08 Let's say they move everybody from here.
03:11 Let's say, well, probably we,
03:12 officers in IETF, they're too long.
03:14 Move them and they bring out a different type of officers.
03:18 - It's serious.
03:19 - It's serious.
03:20 We're going to have problems.
03:22 - If you watch all these guys,
03:23 look where those houses are, right?
03:25 Look where this house is.
03:27 All these guys would have sat down
03:28 in the same class together as youth.
03:30 And that would have been just a few years ago
03:31 because, you know, between 12 to 15, 16, 17,
03:35 you go in the school.
03:36 All them guys sit down in the same school together.
03:38 And then when they reach about 19 years,
03:40 they start to kill each other, right?
03:41 It's a petty conflict too.
03:43 And if you look at the history of it, right?
03:45 Beatom was developed after Eastern Quarry.
03:47 So you find that the people living over there
03:49 have family from here.
03:50 The ADH, you see?
03:51 Well, NHA in those days,
03:52 in the shake house that were built over there,
03:55 were occupied by people from here.
03:57 So you're finding conflict now.
03:58 You find that family will split family,
04:01 will have to choose sides and so on.
04:02 It come like,
04:03 Sealots.
04:06 Sealots was backfilled from Lavant Hill, right?
04:08 And you find that people from Lavant Hill
04:10 is who will occupy there.
04:11 So you find that the family affiliation kind of grows.
04:14 (upbeat music)
04:16 (upbeat music)
04:19 - We just passed block eight.
04:33 And just merely crossing the road
04:34 has taken us into another area.
04:36 So we've gone from the Muslim city area into Rasta city.
04:40 This is St. Paul's street.
04:43 And we're going to Clifton Hill now.
04:45 This area you see over there,
04:47 if you can look the direction I point in,
04:49 that is called the Beverly Hills area.
04:52 This area commonly called the Canada Planins.
04:55 However, the whole area is really known as Makanu Quarry.
04:58 This is Pleasant Terrace Road, right?
05:00 Here is Clifton Hill.
05:02 And that area up there is called Kariku Hill.
05:05 What happened in June, 2011,
05:07 a little conflict arose with some of the members
05:11 of the community over in this Beverly Hills planning.
05:14 And between 2011 and 13,
05:16 that accounted for one of the worst conflict
05:20 we have seen in Laventille.
05:21 That year, 2013, it had something like about 123 murder
05:25 in Bessel Street district alone, right?
05:28 So with that, now we introduced some measures.
05:29 We introduced additional patrol
05:31 and we heightened the community intervention and so on.
05:35 And well, now it is not as bad.
05:38 At this time, the thing that at the time
05:40 that we had here with the Muslim Rasta city,
05:43 right now that is kind of losing momentum.
05:45 You find most of the conflict that we have now
05:47 in these areas between within groups of,
05:51 whether it is Rasta people or the Muslim fraction.
05:54 But however, this area generally
05:56 have been quite all right for a while.
05:59 You know, this area was restored to a certain level
06:01 of peace and calm.
06:03 And we look to try and expand that out
06:05 to the rest of Laventille
06:06 to see if we could get that same effect elsewhere.
06:09 I don't even mention that, right?
06:11 This Muslim Rasta city thing.
06:13 I don't mention that at all.
06:14 I look at it, you're from Duncan Street,
06:16 you're from Nelson Street, you're from John John,
06:18 you're from Bidham.
06:19 I don't want to hear that no more Rasta city, no Muslim.
06:22 I'm not telling them that either.
06:23 - So a poor person, no criminal, none of these.
06:26 - Right, no, no, no.
06:28 So I'm not fueling that.
06:29 I'm not fueling that.
06:30 Probably in a normal conversation,
06:31 in normal dictionary meaning of a word, I will use it.
06:34 But to say to identify a man with Muslim or Rasta city,
06:38 I tend to kind of erase all the barriers.
06:41 I tend to erase that.
06:42 I don't want to hear about that.
06:44 The more you identify a man with those things
06:47 is the more he tend to feel that this is identity.
06:51 So what we try to do is try to be proactive as possible.
06:54 We try to do predictive policing
06:55 in that we have our patrols,
06:57 we brief our patrols and debrief.
07:00 When we have patrol debrief,
07:01 we try to get the information
07:03 as to what the conflict is on the ground.
07:05 So if we have, like for instance,
07:06 if you see a conflict arise between two men
07:09 over some woman, as simple as that,
07:11 over some drugs, over a firearm loss,
07:14 what we will do is we will get into it first
07:16 and we will try to let them know,
07:18 we're not tolerating any other theater.
07:21 - One would expect in coming through these footpaths
07:25 that the imagination can go wild
07:28 and you may think all sorts coming into Laventille
07:31 and in particular, these areas that are called,
07:34 for lack of a better term, hot spots.
07:36 But it's been very peaceful.
07:39 Everyone that we've met has been really nice.
07:41 We've had a couple of conversations
07:43 and it's not just because we're accompanied by the IATF.
07:46 I just think generally, once again,
07:48 this place is misunderstood.
07:50 - Well, what's this area now?
07:52 What's how nice this area,
07:54 what's how beautiful this area is, right?
07:56 I tell you, I see real potential for here, right?
07:58 Now we have to remember something.
08:00 When our community have people marginalized
08:02 for a very long time, they create ways to get along.
08:05 It's either the space ungoverned,
08:09 they call it ungoverned spaces,
08:11 they find some way to do it.
08:12 Or either you marginalize them for so long
08:14 that a person start to apprehend a feeling of nihilism
08:17 and when they do that now,
08:18 let me tell you, one of the worst criminal you could meet
08:22 is one who give up and resort to thinking
08:26 that he amount to nothing
08:27 because now he will go out with such a determination
08:30 to do what he do.
08:31 Now, if you could redirect that,
08:33 that energy that I'm spending to go and kill a man,
08:35 because let me tell you something,
08:36 if a man could run across from right there to right there
08:39 to shoot somebody, right?
08:40 And try to make it back,
08:43 not knowing whether he will survive or not.
08:45 Now look at how much police people passing there,
08:47 now there's a chance he taking, right?
08:49 If a man could take that chance
08:50 and channel that into something positive.
08:52 When you listen to some of them fellas there,
08:55 they're well determined, you know?
08:56 So if they could channel that same determination
08:59 into something positive, you know?
09:01 I think, as I say,
09:02 the mainstream academia have to come in here,
09:04 do some research, see what have the wide areas like this,
09:08 see what improvements they could make,
09:10 and probably make some suggestion
09:12 and somewhere along the line,
09:13 somebody may adopt their proposal
09:15 and make the place a better place.
09:17 ♪ Pick up all the food ♪
09:20 ♪ If you get hot then you must get cool ♪
09:22 ♪ Bad boys, bad boys ♪
09:24 ♪ What you gonna do ♪
09:25 ♪ Oh what you gonna do ♪
09:26 ♪ When they come for you ♪
09:28 ♪ Bad boys, bad boys ♪
09:29 ♪ What you gonna do ♪
09:31 ♪ Oh what you gonna do ♪
09:32 ♪ When they come for you ♪
09:33 ♪ You chuck it on that one ♪
09:35 ♪ You chuck it on this one ♪
09:36 ♪ You chuck it on your mother ♪
09:37 ♪ And you chuck it on your father ♪
09:39 ♪ You chuck it on your brother ♪
09:40 ♪ And you chuck it on your sister ♪
09:42 ♪ You chuck it on that one ♪
09:43 ♪ And you chuck it on me ♪
09:44 ♪ Bad boys, bad boys ♪
09:46 ♪ What you gonna do ♪
09:47 ♪ What you gonna do ♪
09:49 ♪ If you get hot then you must get cool ♪
09:51 ♪ Bad boys, bad boys ♪
09:53 ♪ What you gonna do ♪
09:54 ♪ Oh what you gonna do ♪
09:55 ♪ When they come for you ♪
09:57 ♪ Bad boys, bad boys ♪
09:58 ♪ What you gonna do ♪
10:00 ♪ Oh what you gonna do ♪
10:01 ♪ When they come for you ♪
10:02 ♪ You chuck it on that one ♪
10:04 ♪ You chuck it on this one ♪
10:05 ♪ You chuck it on your mother ♪
10:06 ♪ And you chuck it on your father ♪
10:08 ♪ You chuck it on your brother ♪
10:09 ♪ And you chuck it on your sister ♪
10:11 ♪ You chuck it on that one ♪
10:12 ♪ And you chuck it on me ♪
10:13 (dramatic music)
10:16 - Hey, you gotta turn it at somebody.
10:27 (camera shutter clicking)
10:29 - Don't watch me, it's over my head.
10:32 - Thank you for staying with us.
10:36 We had on our foot patrol with us
10:38 Inspector Romel Morales of the IATF.
10:41 And we also want to thank Sergeant Solomon,
10:43 also of the IATF, who provided us with some insight
10:46 in an interview with IATF headquarters.
10:48 We thank the officers again for granting us
10:50 access to the foot patrol.
10:52 We're joined now by Acting Deputy Commissioner
10:55 of Police, McDonnell Jacob.
10:57 Thank you so much for joining us, DCP Jacob.
11:00 I want to get straight into it.
11:02 The setup of the IATF is a very unique one.
11:05 We heard Sergeant Solomon say there just now
11:07 with regards to what makes it so unique
11:09 is the tenure with regards to the officers
11:12 that spend in some of these,
11:14 for lack of a better term, hotspots.
11:16 Are there any plans to extend that to other districts?
11:19 Or what, in your opinion, or your estimation,
11:21 makes the IATF so unique as we found out for the first time?
11:24 - Well, firstly, good afternoon
11:26 to the general public.
11:28 I wish to apologize for the commissioner's non-appearance.
11:33 He had a very, very important engagement,
11:35 so I'm here falling in for him.
11:37 The IATF is a very, very important aspect
11:42 of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service.
11:44 Actually, the IATF, over the years,
11:48 we developed several best practices,
11:51 which was, in fact, transferred to other areas
11:54 in Trinidad and Tobago.
11:55 I think you will know about the enterprise situation
11:59 where we had problems in the enterprise area.
12:02 And the same model we adopted with the IATF,
12:05 we adopted it in the enterprise area,
12:07 and we were very, very successful.
12:09 Thus, that was a smaller area,
12:11 but yet it's the same sort of methodology
12:13 used at the enterprise.
12:16 Also, in the Northern Division area
12:19 and in other districts, we use the IATF model.
12:21 The IATF is a combination of the police officers
12:25 and the defense force personnel
12:27 who are specially trained to work
12:30 and deal with situations in these areas.
12:33 In Laventille, all around 2005, 2006, 2007,
12:38 around that period, the IATF was formed
12:42 because of the problems that we were having
12:44 within the Laventille and in the Port of Spain area.
12:49 And in fact, some persons don't know
12:51 about the relevant success
12:53 because on the other side of it,
12:56 we had the hearts and minds developing,
12:58 dealing and engaging the public.
13:01 In fact, at a time in all 2008 and 2006,
13:06 we used to be having approximately about 120 murders per year
13:11 in the Laventille and Port of Spain area.
13:15 And within the last few years,
13:16 it now cut down to 60-something.
13:18 I mean to say we don't even want one,
13:20 but it have been cut by something like 50% over the years.
13:25 And that is because of the good work being done
13:28 by the IATF personnel in combination with the task forces
13:32 and the other personnel in the Port of Spain area.
13:35 - Now, the terrain in itself that we saw firsthand,
13:37 I mean, it's certainly not for the faint-hearted,
13:39 but there's no element of surprise for the police officers
13:43 who illegal activity is easily hidden
13:45 by the time they arrive on foot.
13:47 Can anything be done to give the officers an advantage
13:50 in your opinion?
13:52 - Well, what we are adding to some advantage
13:56 for the police officers,
13:57 we definitely need to use drones
14:01 in order to pick up what is actually happening.
14:03 The same way, the way the hills are structured,
14:07 they can see us when we are coming from a distance,
14:10 we will be able to see them.
14:13 In fact, what we did years ago,
14:15 we actually mapped all the steps
14:18 and all the tracks within the Laventille area by GPS.
14:21 So therefore, when we look at the map,
14:22 we will just be seeing the roads.
14:24 We will be always seeing all the tracks and steps
14:27 within the Laventille area.
14:28 And then instead of having only mobile patrols,
14:32 we infuse foot patrols.
14:35 With at least four persons on foot patrols at a time.
14:37 In most instances, we try to have a combination
14:40 of two police officers and two members of the defense force
14:44 to go through the tracks
14:45 because the way the terrain is there,
14:48 by the time the police vehicle take to reach
14:49 from one point to the next,
14:51 you know, a lot of things can happen.
14:53 So, you know, the area is, it is very, very difficult.
14:56 In some instances, the roads are so narrow
14:58 that the officers need to come out
15:01 from in the back of the vehicle and sit in the tree
15:04 so that if something happened,
15:06 they can respond because the doors,
15:08 they are unable to open the doors.
15:09 So it is a real difficult piece of work
15:13 to be done in the Laventille area.
15:14 - And as you mentioned, I mean,
15:15 even though in some cases there are roads,
15:17 in some cases there are no roads
15:18 and the structure in itself of the setup
15:21 in some of those areas is one that you can only get there
15:24 through some of these footpaths.
15:27 But you know, one thing, I mean,
15:28 it was intimidating initially when we set off,
15:31 but as we started to traverse through the hills
15:34 of some of these areas, I mean, what struck me is,
15:37 you know, we saw so many kids laughing and playing,
15:40 you know, coming up to us and saying good afternoon.
15:43 And you touched on it just now where you spoke
15:45 about Hearts and Minds as one of the community programs
15:47 that are there.
15:48 What else is being set up for by the TTPS
15:52 to ensure that, you know,
15:53 the youth turn away from a life of crime
15:55 and that we can continue to see them,
15:57 see those smiles and that laughter?
15:59 - Well, you know, we have the popular police youth clubs,
16:03 like the Bittom Youth Club, the St. Babs Youth Club,
16:06 other than the Hearts and Minds,
16:08 there's a combination of doing significant work.
16:10 And the police, the community police,
16:13 work within the community, link with the people,
16:16 and organize different forms of programs
16:19 within the Laventille community.
16:21 You see the community, in our view,
16:23 might be, some people might be looking in
16:25 and say this entire community, and it is stereotyped.
16:28 - Of course, yes.
16:29 - And labeled in a particular way.
16:30 But there are so many good people in the Laventille,
16:34 Bittom, and the Sealots area.
16:36 But you'll have a few persons who tend to--
16:39 - A few bad apples.
16:40 - These communities in a particular manner.
16:42 And these are the people we're trying to deal with,
16:44 and we're trying to get the younger ones
16:46 so they will not look to join some of these gangs
16:49 who wish to continue their illegal means in order to live.
16:53 So we need to deal with it in a particular way,
16:55 but I can assure you we have the majority of support
16:58 from the people in Laventille,
17:00 with all the good works that were done
17:02 within the past few years.
17:05 - DCP Jacob, you always say that people aren't bad,
17:08 their choices are bad.
17:09 And as you just mentioned, there are a lot of good people
17:11 in areas such as Laventille, going to Duncan Street,
17:14 Nelson Street, Sealots, et cetera.
17:17 But we also heard from Inspector Morales earlier
17:19 that in a community, if a community decides
17:21 it doesn't want crime, then there'll be no crime.
17:24 Why is it you think then that persons don't come forward?
17:28 - Well, I will not say that persons don't come forward.
17:32 People do come forward.
17:35 But you'll have to understand, really,
17:37 I think Morales was talking about that,
17:40 the environment, he's talking about
17:42 the socialization of persons,
17:44 he talked about the type of music that engenders
17:48 certain type of behavior that need to change.
17:52 A lot of work need to be done at the school level
17:55 because the community police try to target the schools
17:58 and do work with the young people.
18:00 There's a culture, and you remember,
18:02 some persons are happy if a particular negative culture
18:05 continue because they feed on that in order to survive.
18:08 So the same way they do a lot of work,
18:10 we have to continue doing a lot of work,
18:11 and not just the police.
18:13 A lot of the soft forms of policing,
18:16 and we will say a lot of the social work that is required,
18:18 is not just the police only.
18:20 We need all the other agencies to go in there
18:22 and continue doing work.
18:23 We need programs for parents, we need programs
18:28 for the young, like what we are dealing with,
18:31 we need the parenting, we need the classes
18:35 for the young people.
18:37 So there's a lot of things that need to be done
18:39 in these areas to ensure that we can reach this level
18:44 of acceptance as it relates to positive performance
18:50 within our community by most of the persons.
18:53 We must remember that this program is basically
18:57 dealing with the Laventille and Beatom area,
18:59 but there are other areas in Trinidad and Tobago
19:02 that we have similar situations that we need to deal with.
19:05 - And well said, of course, there are a lot of good people
19:07 out there being marked all in one, as in one basket,
19:12 but at the end of the day, as I said,
19:13 they're no bad people, just bad choices.
19:16 We take a short break, we're here with DCP Jacob.
19:18 This is On Patrol.
19:19 (dramatic music)
19:24 (dramatic music)
19:27 Thank you for staying with us.
19:37 This is On Patrol.
19:39 We're now into our talk TNT segment.
19:41 We have DCP Jacob on set with us.
19:43 We're talking about the interagency task force.
19:46 We had the privilege of going along with them
19:48 on a foot patrol and getting a first hand view
19:51 of many of these areas that are in some cases misunderstood.
19:56 The numbers up on your screen there,
19:57 624-8721 and 627-8658.
20:01 Give us a call if you have any questions
20:03 to relate to DCP Jacob.
20:07 DCP Jacob, before we went to the break,
20:09 of course, you spoke about a lot of the activities
20:11 in the communities and work that the TTPS are doing
20:14 to turn the youth away from crime.
20:17 But shortly after, one of the things,
20:19 when we were coming down from the foot patrol,
20:22 about maybe three or four hours after we left
20:25 some of the Duncan Street plannings,
20:26 a teenager was executed.
20:28 What would you say to that?
20:31 And, you know, police can't be everywhere, right?
20:35 - Yeah, the police cannot be everywhere.
20:37 And right on in Duncan Street,
20:38 we actually have a police post existing there
20:41 because we had problems there years ago
20:43 and we thought it was necessary to put a police post there.
20:45 So by having the police presence,
20:48 we can create that presence that is necessary.
20:52 However, as you recognize how within the buildings
20:56 are situated, and in fact, the persons decide
21:00 that which area is which person's territory.
21:03 So you will have one area that they're saying
21:06 is one gang territory versus the other.
21:08 And if they believe that you are assigned to
21:13 or linked to another particular gang
21:16 and you come into the area, you may be shot.
21:20 And that is some of the problems that we are having
21:22 existing within these particular areas.
21:25 - DCP Jacob, we have a caller on the line,
21:27 a caller from Chagonas, good evening.
21:29 - Good evening. - Good evening.
21:31 Good evening, Mr. Dumas and DCP Jacob.
21:34 I'm calling, I'm an event planner as well,
21:37 and I'm interested in probably assisting
21:41 in hosting some type of event for the youths in that area.
21:46 Who could I be?
21:47 Could you put me on to someone that I could laser
21:50 so we could probably host like that?
21:53 - Well, DCP Jacob, if you don't mind,
21:55 if we can take your details offline,
21:58 and of course, we will be contacting you from the newsroom.
22:01 And of course, I can pass that number on
22:03 to DCP Jacob afterwards.
22:05 Thank you for calling.
22:06 We have another caller.
22:07 Caller, good evening.
22:08 - Hi, good night, panel.
22:09 How are you doing?
22:11 I just called to pick up all you're doing
22:12 a wonderful work here.
22:13 God bless you and bless this world
22:15 and bless this country.
22:16 (speaking in foreign language)
22:18 - God bless you.
22:19 - I love you with our unity and one love
22:20 and respect one another.
22:22 God bless, take care.
22:23 - All right, caller, God bless you too.
22:27 Good evening.
22:28 - Yeah.
22:29 - We have another caller on the line.
22:31 Caller.
22:32 (phone ringing)
22:34 No.
22:35 DCP Jacob, the commissioner has been very vocal
22:38 about rogue police.
22:41 One of the things that we've noticed
22:42 in some of the information that we gathered
22:44 as we were on foot patrol,
22:45 the use of riders or other names
22:48 where people tip them off.
22:49 Some of the persons in the plannings
22:51 actually mentioned to us that some of those tips
22:53 come from within the police service.
22:55 - Yeah, that may be so.
22:58 And sometimes it may be situations
23:01 where persons themselves see the police gathering
23:03 and are organizing themselves to go on exercises.
23:06 And they will in fact also call
23:08 and persons will be of the opinion
23:09 that the police officers will call.
23:11 But we in fact have evidence that police officers call
23:14 and there are systems that we have in place
23:17 to deal with those situations.
23:20 You know, we have other agency that is assisting us
23:22 so that when we are organizing,
23:23 we will be able to tell who are the police officers,
23:27 if any at all, are making these calls
23:29 so persons to tip them off
23:31 that we are coming and do various exercises.
23:33 In fact, we are now planning and organizing
23:36 in a particular way that it will be difficult.
23:39 It will be difficult for persons to detect
23:41 when we are actually organizing to deal with issues
23:44 within the community, these illegal issues.
23:47 - DCP Jacob, one of the things that,
23:51 I mean, it's unfortunate what we're seeing.
23:52 We're seeing all the scenes
23:54 with regards to what's happening in the US
23:56 and the unfortunate incidents surrounding George Floyd,
23:59 Black Lives Matter.
24:01 What are the plans?
24:02 Are we on any sort of alert level
24:04 for a possible riot in Trinidad and Tobago?
24:06 - Well, in Trinidad and Tobago,
24:07 police service is always on alert level
24:10 as it relates to dealing with any kind of protest,
24:13 demonstrations or riots.
24:15 We actually, our Guard and Emergency Branch
24:18 is fully equipped to deal with any form of riot,
24:23 protests or demonstrations within Trinidad and Tobago.
24:28 Right, the officers within the divisions
24:32 are first responders if anything occur,
24:35 but then we have our specialized persons
24:37 who are specially trained in this regard
24:40 so that if there is any problem existing,
24:44 we can deal with it.
24:45 We also look at right now developing our non-lethal arsenal
24:50 that is dealing with tasers, pepper spray
24:55 and all the other means that whenever any unrover bullets
25:00 so that when anything happen,
25:02 we will be able to handle it in a particular manner.
25:05 - So would you say that some of those means
25:08 of subduing a crowd might be a bit excessive
25:11 or is it a necessary?
25:14 - You see dealing with crowd control is situational.
25:17 It all depend on the nature of it you will know
25:21 because as I said, the first responders
25:23 are the police officers who are within division
25:26 who got minimal training as it relates to riot.
25:28 But if it escalates to that point,
25:32 this is where persons from the garden emergency branch
25:35 who are specially trained to deal with riots will come in.
25:39 That is when things are turned
25:42 from one direction into another.
25:44 - DCB Jacob, you've been part of the interagency task force
25:49 from the very beginning.
25:50 What's your final thoughts on a message
25:52 to not just persons in Laventille or areas in enterprise
25:56 or in any of these areas as a matter of fact,
25:58 what a person's looking on to these areas
26:00 who may judge them unfairly.
26:02 What's a message that you would have to the nation?
26:04 - Well, the police are there to support you.
26:09 We are looking for your support
26:13 and we can work together in order to resolve
26:17 the situation that exists within your community.
26:19 We are all aware that there's a small group of persons
26:22 within your community that is causing the difficulties.
26:27 And we are aware that if the police decide to join with you
26:32 from the community police perspective,
26:34 from all our aspects that we have with the hearts and minds
26:39 and you join with us, we will rid your community
26:42 of the scourge that is existing,
26:45 making your community a much safer place.
26:49 - Well, that's our show tonight.
26:51 Thank you to DCB Jacob for taking the time to join us.
26:54 A special thank you to Inspector Morales of the IATF
26:56 for taking us on the foot patrol.
26:58 A lot of what you saw could look intimidating
27:01 with the guns and the frisk,
27:02 but this is the tip of the iceberg
27:04 in terms of the community policing going on in those areas.
27:07 As you would have heard,
27:08 it's about seeing the residents of the community
27:10 as people and not targets.
27:12 It's a bottoms up approach, getting to the youth
27:15 before they turn to a life of crime.
27:17 You would have heard most of the warring factions
27:19 are friends or family who grew up together.
27:22 People aren't bad, they just make bad choices.
27:25 On a final note, we are paying close attention
27:27 to the events taking place in the US.
27:29 We stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
27:33 It may seem like it's far away,
27:34 but almost everyone has a friend or family member
27:37 living in the US.
27:39 We pray for their safety,
27:40 not just amidst the ongoing protest,
27:42 but every day of their lives in the US
27:44 with a system which seems to forever hold a need
27:47 to the necks of people of color.
27:49 I'm Robert Dumas.
27:50 Thanks for joining us.
27:51 See you next week.
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27:56 (dramatic music)
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