Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 07, 2014 News
“If you are a cop and two men ride away from you, having breached the traffic law or any other law, you have to give chase and not shoot at them because they commit an offence in your view.”
This is the contention of former Commissioner of Police and A Partnership for National Unity‘s (APNU) shadow Minister of Home Affairs, Winston Felix.
Felix was at the time speaking about the recent incident on Leopold Street where residents claimed that police ranks fired their high powered weapons indiscriminately while pursuing two men on a motorcycle.
Kaieteur News was told that some of the police ranks returned to the scene and apologized to the residents. They also reportedly searched for the bullet casings and asked the residents to hand over any that they might have found.
Felix said he has a personal “view in these situations because the police are not shooting under the conditions laid down in the charge of firearms whether in any public space.”
He further outlined that the rules of engagement require the police to fire if they are attacked and they are unable to defend themselves by any other means, “meaning that even though a man may have a gun, you don’t need to shoot him if he could be arrested without the use of more force.”
According to the former Top Cop, somebody’s little child could have been shot or killed by a stray bullet because the ranks did not hit the targets.
“It is not a situation where they should’ve fired in the first place, so my position is not to criticize the police, my position is that the police ought to be aware of their roles in relation to establishing and maintaining public safety given the fact that they have powerful firearms.”
Speaking to the powerful firearms that the patrol officers have on them, Felix said that they are unnecessary. He said that based on the spent shells retrieved from the scene at Leopold Street, the weapons that the officers were using were high powered rifles.
“My position is that the police don’t have cause to engage anybody with a high powered weapon more than a hundred meters,” said the former Top Cop.
Using an example, Felix posited “if there is a domestic dispute, more than likely the police will be in your face with a high-powered rifle because they are the ones on patrol and they won’t put away their guns and come to you; they have to come right away.”
“Don’t get me wrong, all I am saying is that these rifles should be in background for emergencies. They have other weapons which they can use on patrol and not look unnecessarily menacing to the public.”
Speaking to the procedure that should be established by the police when engaging, Felix outlined that there are two cases, one where the situation is threatening and the other where it is non- threatening.
According to the former Top Cop, in non threatening situations, the procedure is that police are to engage in the way that they were trained. “You intervene whether in plain clothes or uniform with a nice pleasant introduction of yourself and state that you are investigating this matter and you proceed along that line.”
In a threatening situation where shooting is involved, he said, you should obviously know who you are shooting at because in a situation where two persons are shooting at each other, one the robber and the other the victim, the intervening officer would not know which person to engage.
“You got to get yourself immersed in the situation and understand what you are dealing with before you open fire. Otherwise you could be shot while defending yourself and that is not the intention of law enforcement.”
The other aspect Felix outlined is where the officer is aware of who the target is.
In that position, “where possible, a warning should be given, but assuming the warning could not be given, the police can fire or they can abstain from firing by explaining that the presence of persons in the neighborhood prevented them from so doing.”
“So not because you have a situation where you could shoot you wantonly discharge your firearm and knock anybody other than the real target. The police have a right to restrain themselves from shooting. That is the training that I understand the police to be getting, it hasn’t changed. It started long before I joined and it continues onto now,” said Felix.
The former Commissioner of Police said that he is “condemning the shooting because it is unprofessional and it puts the public at greater risk at the hands of the police who should be protecting them.”
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