Falklands : Police Committee Report (24/03/08)
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 26.03.2008 (Article Archived on 09.04.2008)
A meeting of the Police Committee took place at Government House at 1400hrs on Monday, 24 March 2008.
POLICE COMMITTEE REPORT (24/03/08)
By J. Brock (FINN)
A meeting of the Police Committee took place at Government House at 1400hrs on Monday, 24 March 2008. Present were Mr. Paul Martinez, Acting Governor, Mr David Pickup, Attorney General, Mr Tim Thorogood, Chief Executive, Mrs Leif Pollard, Magistrate, Cllr Janet Robertson, Cllr Richard Stevens, Cllr Mike Rendell, Mr Paul Elliott, Chief Police Officer and Mrs Una Wallace, Clerk. Apologies for absence were received from Inspector Len McGill and Magistrate Andy Brownlee.
Arising from the last meeting was sinage and marking on Camp Roads. It was pointed out that all of the fatal road accidents happened outside of Stanley. A discussion about whether this was the responsibility of the Roads Engineer (PWD) or the Police Department ensued with a round robin with the PWD and the Police Department seen as the way forward. Mr Martinez said he would take this forward.
A discussion on the Zero Tolerance paper was varied with two aspects of the policy being explored. The first aspect was that Police would move into an area and not let the slightest infringement of the law go un-punished. This was thought to move crime out of one area to another area. The second, most community policing friendly aspect was when a certain crime – drugs crime – was focused on and everyone found in possession would be arrested. A little old lady smoking pot for pain relief a month before she dies would have special treatment. While the police would arrest a person in possession of drugs, the Attorney General’s department is independent and makes a separate decision whether or not to prosecute. A paper (not the one listed below) will be produced.
There will be another meeting of people who are interested in the Firearms Policy prior to the next meeting of the Police Committee.
A discussion on whether or not the Police ordinance needs to be amended took place with the concern being whether the Police Committee can meet if a quorum is not present. The short answer is that now it can as the law stipulates that even if only one person turned up there could be a meeting. This means that if no Magistrates are available there are no contingency plans to supply an alternate Magistrate to attend the meeting. No decision was made on this item yet but I anticipate further discussion. Davis Pickup will do a paper on this presumably for the next meeting.
The Chief Police officer then gave his report – see attached. It is important to note here that the priority seems to be that Community Policing is the best way forward for the Falklands.
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