Ranks seeking supplemental jobs must obtain permission

Sep 01, 2016 News

– Acting Top Cop

Acting Commissioner of Police, David Ramnarine

The Commissioner of Police (Ag), David Ramnarine disclosed that “in order for a policeman to engage in activities, lawful activities, with a view to earn other than that salary which he is receiving officially, he’s got to have the permission from the commissioner of police, and prior to that permission, there’s a process by which he has to engage.”
“Because of the nature of law enforcement, we have never ever given wholesale approval… wholesale permission, for members of the force to be engaged in activities other than law enforcement. It has to be dealt with on a case by case basis,” Ramnarine explained.
“We basically frowned on it in the past, to the extent that the policeman is basically on duty 24/7. For other reasons…conflict of interest – getting into conflicts with members of the public, if not conflict of interest, and those issues along the line, it has to be controlled, but we do examine this on a case by case basis.”
The acting Commissioner noted that he had seen the Traffic Chief’s statement in the press (to take disciplinary action very soon against ranks who operate mini-buses), but pointed out that “we don’t want to deny any member of the force who wants to pursue supplementing their salary by legitimate means, but you and I (the public) need to understand that where minibus driving is concerned, we have had within the recent past and some years ago, ugly instances of policemen breaching the rules of the road, and people are complaining; ‘look these are members of the force’. They are the ones who are involved and cause us (the GPF) to get a bad name too.”
Ramnarine further stated that there are a lot of people who have left their various occupations in the past and who bought minibuses.
This, he emphasised, causes a lot of confusion on the road, as these persons usually have a target to meet and would flout the laws related to use of the roadways.
The acting Top Cop said that the Police Force encourages drivers in the force, as over the recent years there has been a greater need for drivers, and in order for a policeman to become a “force driver” he first has to get a minibus licence on his private driver’s licence.
Ramnarine stressed that in light of the recent incidents regarding police ranks and minibus incidents, there will be a need to re-examine the procedure involving ranks being granted a private bus licence before becoming a “force driver,” as ranks more often than not sneak away from duty to do public minibus driving on the roadways.

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