Benn creates special lock-ups for cops

Jun 14, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn has, through an official order signed under the Prison Act, designated a special lock-up for police ranks.
The Order, since gazetted, identifies the facility to be used as one located at the Police Headquarters at Eve Leary and is to be used to secure police ranks accused of committing criminal offences pending the outcome of an investigation.

The Order, since gazetted, identifies the facility to be used as one located at the Police Headquarters at Eve Leary

The facility designated the Tactical Services Unit Lockup is described in the schedule as an eight by 10 feet building, measuring a height of 10 feet, complete with metal bars and, windows and sink and toilet. The most recent rank to be detained pending an investigation was involved in the fatal shooting of a Haslington, East Coast Demerara (ECD) resident, 23 year-old, Quindon Bacchus. He is on ‘close arrest.’ Earlier in the month another rank of the Tactical Services Unit found himself in hot water after investigators found out that he, a mechanic and several other persons were involved in the hijacking of a car.

The policeman reportedly buckled while being interrogated by his colleagues and was the one who led them to the stolen car at a location in Canal Number One, West Bank Demerara (WBD). The car was reportedly stripped and spray-painted in a ‘gun metal’ colour, but police were still able to positively identify it as stolen by reviewing the chasis number.
Over the year’s scores of active police ranks, have had to be detained by the Force and placed before the courts, under suspicion of unlawful activities.

This publication has over the years highlighted some of the more prominent incidences such as in January 2021, when a cop was charged for hosting a private party. The officer, Timothy Morrison, who is attached to the Impact Base at the Brickdam Police Station, was charged with Breach of Restriction on Social Activities. The following month, a member of the GPF was taken to court for causing death by dangerous driving. The Police Constable of the Tactical Service Unit had appeared in the Providence Magistrate’s Court before Principal Magistrate, Judy Latchman. The defendant, Steffon Ramsay, pleaded not guilty to the charge which alleged that on January 5, last, he drove minibus PWW 7172 owned by the GPF in a manner dangerous to the public, causing the death of Dulmatie Deochand called ‘Aunty Dolly’, 59, of Section ‘C’ Block Y, Golden Grove, East Bank Demerara.

Senior ranks have also been implicated in wrongdoings by the police such as the 11 members of the Force who were last year charged with fraud. The ranks included: Deputy Commander of Division 4 ‘B’ – Senior Superintendent, Lorraine Saul, Police Finance Officer – Superintendent, Marcelene Washington, former Deputy Finance Officer–Deputy Superintenden, Frank Jackman-Wilburg, and former Deputy Finance Officer–Assistant Superintenden, Roxanne Griffith-Adams. When the matter was heard in court Saul and Washington were out of the jurisdiction.
Other ranks that were charged are: Officer-in-Charge at the Police Finance Department (ag), Assistant Superintendent, Kurt Smith; former Assistant Commissioner of Police, Kevin Adonis; Sergeants Jermaine Fraser and Michael Corbin; Corporal, Rawle Haynes and Constables, Jenneka Carmichael and Tatyana Smith.

Saul, Washington, Jackman-Wilburg, Griffith-Adams and Kurt Smith were charged for conspiracy to commit fraud, in relation to the falsification of meals payment.
Adonis, Haynes, Fraser and Corbin were slapped with allegedly stealing millions of dollars that were allocated for ranks who performed extra duties while Tatyana Smith and Carmichael were charged for erasing critical data in one of the fraud cases. In August 2021, a Corporal was remanded for extorting over $400,000 from a suspect’s relative. The cop, Omale Damon, was caught in a sting operation collecting money from the suspect’s relative. It is alleged that Damon swindled over $400,000 from the woman claiming that he could get her relative released from police custody. Damon had appeared in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts before the Chief Magistrate, Ann McLennan, where he was slapped with three counts of corrupt transactions.