March to protest lack of police action

DAN PLATO, the MEC for Community Safety, will receive a memorandum from the Grassy Park Community Policing Forum on Saturday, March 11, at noon in front of the police station at Grassy Park.

This will be at the culmination of a peaceful community march to express dissatisfaction with police service delivery. Lieutenant-General Jula, the provincial commissioner, has been invited to receive the memorandum.

This march follows many initiatives, including an official call for a commission of inquiry into the state of policing at Grassy Park.

The Grassy Park community is unhappy with the poor service delivery, manifested in very long response times, lack of feedback on cases, constantly being told there are not enough patrol vehicles to attend to complaints, and the weak efforts to oppose bail.

This results in repeat offenders being back on the streets after their arrests. Complainants in some cases waited for days before a police official attended to their complaints. Burglaries in progress don’t get immediate responses.

Even when community and neighbourhood watches apprehend suspects, police response is slow and sometimes the neighbourhood watch is forced to let the suspect go because of lack of police response.

Often police refuse to open cases when the community wants to lay charges. It has become so bad that community members have to make citizen’s arrests and transport suspects in their own vehicles to the police station for formal arrest.

The relationship between the police and the community is at an all-time low. In the past, the CPF and community developed good working relationships with the station commanders, but it appears this is not the case with the present commander.

The march will start at 10am from the corner of Buck Road and 5th Avenue, Lotus River, and proceed along 5th Avenue to the Grassy Park police station.

The CPF asks the media to cover this event so as to assist in bringing the plight of our community to the attention of the authorities.