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Police need to get their act together

Sep 01, 2008 News

–    sitting magistrates
Apart from an overwhelming number of cases to be presided over by magistrates on a daily basis, they are being overburdened with other issues which are beyond them.
Daily, at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts, magistrates raise a number of concerns which affect them. However, despite “preaching,” as some call it, nothing is apparently being done to change the situation.
Already there are limited magistrates in the court, and as such, one magistrate is overwhelmed with too many cases to effectively handle on any given day. As if that is not enough, it seems like additional stress continues to befall magistrates on a daily basis.
There are instances when a magistrate will call a case for the trial to commence or continue; and while the case jackets are with the prosecutor, the prisoners are not present at court.
As such, that case would have to be put down and called at a later date, which is an injustice to the prisoners, who are not responsible for this problem. In other instances, there are times when the prisoners would be present but their case jackets are not. The court is told, “Madam, the jackets have been sent to Providence Court by error”.
That would mean that prisoners who are imprisoned would remain incarcerated for an even longer time.
There are also instances when the prosecution fails to present their witnesses, which is another factor delaying trials.
Very often, cases are called and have to be put down or given another date, because of the absence of witnesses, whereas the Police have a responsibility to ensure that witnesses are present in court.
These are just some of the issues raised on a daily basis by magistrates as they sit to preside over matters.
These are long-standing issues plaguing the judicial system, and little or nothing is apparently being done to rectify them.
Often, magistrates are heard openly in court calling on the police to get their act together as it relates to getting witnesses in court, getting prisoners to court on their court dates, and even ensuring case jackets are in court for the relevant cases.
During a recent court hearing, the police ranks who were present in court had to be upbraided for not having prisoners or their case jackets present.
When the magistrate enquired from the ranks, including one senior officer, as to the reason for this blunder, the court was informed that the case jackets were sent to another court by error.
–    Sitting magistrates continue on a daily basis to urge police prosecutors to do better, since they have a duty to prisoners to ensure speedy trails and to have cases disposed of in a timely manner, moreso for cases where the offenses are non-bailable.

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