Deputy CoP says police officers working ‘under some inhumane conditions’

Deputy Commissioner of Police Frankie Joseph has told the High Court that the nation’s police officers are working in “inhumane conditions” at some of the nation’s police stations, and that a visit to the Central Police Station in Kingstown would reveal this.

The nation’s second-highest-ranking police officer made the statement at the close of the criminal assizes in Kingstown on Thursday and thanked lawyer Grant Connell for raising the issue once again.

Joseph was the most senior police officer to attend the special sitting, with Commissioner of Police Enville Williams absent for yet another time.

Justice Rickie Burnett invited Joseph and a member of the jury to address the court, in addition to a member of the bar, as is usually the case.

Joseph began his speech by thanking the police officer who provided security at the court, then extended Christmas greetings to all stakeholders in the judicial system.

“Counsel Connell, thank you for those words. Yes, the police have been doing, in my estimation, an exceptional job under very harsh conditions, I may say,” Joseph said. 


Addressing the judge, Joseph continued, “My lord, I don’t know if you have visited a lot of our police stations. Well, as close as the police barracks, if you probably visited — but then you probably may have seen videos of it on numerous occasions on social media.”

The deputy police chief was referring to the historic police headquarters building, located on Bay and Hillsboro streets, one block away from the court.

Justice Burnett told Joseph that he considered his comments an invitation to visit the barracks and that he was accepting it.

“Thank you very much. Thank you very much,” Joseph told the court.

“And in spite of all of the hard condition — and my officers know what I normally say that a lot of our police officers have been performing their duties under some inhumane conditions when you go to some of the station, and I’m really hoping that coming this new year, that we can really do some work on these stations, so that the police can be more comfortable.”

Joseph said that the police offer two services. “We have two customers, our internal customers and our external customers. And sometimes, because of the condition that our internal customers are working in, it impacts the service that they deliver, sometimes to our external customers,” he said.

“It is not supposed to be like that, but sometimes, it is just human that you know you are functioning there and then even though you are supposed to be professional, because you are functioning under those conditions, sometimes you just — the human nature, just kicks in, and you actually say things that you’re not supposed to say.”

Joseph said that police officers are “trained professionals, but, under those conditions, sometimes things happen that are not supposed to.

“So, we are hoping that for this year, that we can see some improvement in our working and all the living conditions in these stations,” Joseph said.

Speaking earlier in the sitting, Connell thanked the police for their service, saying these are “not easy times, and I have to thank them…

“Commissioner,” Connell said, and someone at the bar table told him the top cop was not present and that the most senior officer was the deputy commissioner.

“Deputy Commissioner, you have to stand up for your men. And if you didn’t want to stand up before, stand up now,” Connell said.

“When you all come across there for the briefing … tell the prime minister your problem,” the lawyer said, adding that the conditions at some police station washrooms “are deplorable”.

“I went upstairs the Central Police Station. It was like Johnny Depp when he ran across the beach,” he said, referring to a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean, which was filmed in the Grenadines.

“You had to dodge the woodlice and look for a plank that you can walk on. And these are the men you expect to perform.”

The lawyer said he visited the Drug Squad base a few years ago and “pigeon flying in and out” while an officer was “sweeping out rat dung from the kitchen”.

Connell told the court that he hopes that “this year, a lot of changes will take place”.

The issues were raised in court even as the new Minister of National Security, St. Clair Leacock, has been visiting the nation’s police station since being assigned the portfolio on Dec. 2, following the New Democratic Party’s Nov. 27 election victory.