Falklands : Police Committee Meeting Report (090814)
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 22.08.2009 (Article Archived on 05.09.2009)
A meeting of the Police Committee took place at Government House at 1430hrs on Friday, 14 August 2009.
POLICE COMMITTEE MEETING REPORT
By J. Brock (FINN)
A meeting of the Police Committee took place at Government House at 1430hrs on Friday, 14 August 2009. Present were Cllrs Cockwell, Rendell and Robertson as well as H. E. the Governor Mr Alan Huckle, the Chief Executive Mr Tim Thorogood, Mrs Una Wallace (Minutes), Mr Keith Biles and Chief Police Officer Mr Paul Elliot.
After apologies for absence, confirmation of the open minutes of the meeting held on 15 may 2009 went through all the normal stages. Various matters arising from the open minutes came up including insurance for vehicles, designation of roads in relation to vehicle insurance, the numbers of vehicles checked for speed and the number of offenders, speed bumps, the identification of problem spots and police interaction with students in the Infant/junior School and the Community School.
There also was a discussion about using dogs on patrol and how well the “lap dog” worked in the apprehension of Dominic Watson. The discussion turned to the proper use of handguns for gathering sheep in remote areas and police authorisation for their use as well as rifles above .22 calibre.
The Attorney General awaits a paper on sanctions for students involved in drugs incidents. This goes to the Education board on 08 September.
The chief Police Officer then gave his report. Some of the highlights are the 96 offences in this year’s report compared with 74 the previous year. There were no reported heinous crimes committed during the reporting period.
Though criminal damage offences were up there was no identifiable trend or time of night these offences were taking place. Reports of domestic violence were up and stories about two dangerous dogs need checking. The shotgun reported stolen from a vehicle in Camp has not yet been found.
There was one seatbelt incident in May and since them two others were not prosecuted as the Attorney General felt that no further action was appropriate.
The police station is nearly finished with work on the mast and CCTV as well as the odd door handle need to be completed. There was a small discussion about replacing the barbed wire with razor wire at the prisoner’s exercise area. It is an ineffective deterrent but the PWD don’t want to work with razor wire and the Military were being consulted about it.
There will be an as yet unscheduled open day at the Police Station when it is complete.
There was a discussion about safe houses for the victims of domestic violence but this is not practical in such a small society.
There was a report that covered 2004 to 2009 and the Chief Executive asked if this report could be part of the Islands Plan. CPO Elliott said that the next report would be dovetailed into the Islands Plan but it was not possible for this report due to timing and logistical constraints. Next year the problems won’t exist. It was thought that the report could be done at any time but it would work better if it was part of the Islands Plan. July might be a better time to do it as January can be quite busy for the Police Department.
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