DPP made right move

Dwayne Gibbs

“The DPP has to do what’s right, and he’s done that,” was Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs’s comment in response to the Director of Public Prosecutions’ decision to drop the charges against 21 men from Nelson Street.

In a rare move on Monday September 12, DPP Roger Gaspard went to court himself and dropped the cases, saying there was not enough evidence to prosecute the men.

In an exclusive interview on Saturday September 17, Commissioner Gibbs agreed with Gaspard’s move.

“It’s up to us to provide enough evidence to take the case through the court, and we haven’t gathered enough evidence to meet that threshold,” he said, noting, “The new legislation came in a week before.”

Gibbs was referring to the Anti-Gang Act, which was proclaimed on August 15. “We’re trying to feel our way through the legislation,” he said.

“A lot of people were picked up on intelligence we had with regard to their being in gangs. But the intelligence we had before August 15 couldn’t be used for those charges,” he explained. “It could be used to pick them up, but not to charge them. Now we’ve got them in custody, we can put the evidence together.”

Asked about claims that the police had been told to round people up first and find evidence afterwards, Gibbs said, “I’ve heard that too.”

He added that police officers knew what was right and had no obligation to obey if they were given illegal orders.

Unlike the DPP, Gibbs welcomed the announcement that the Attorney General is to supply teams of lawyers to work with the police to prosecute those held during the State of Emergency.

“They’re consultants,” he said.  “They’re here to help us with their legal expertise, and we’re learning so that we can present better evidence.” Gibbs said the police were in consultation with the DPP “almost on a daily basis.”

He said the police were unable to use the videotapes of Nelson Street residents apparently carrying out robberies, because there were no complainants. “It’s not that we did nothing,” he said. “We talked to the victims and they didn’t want to give evidence.” He admitted that it was frustrating when witnesses were too frightened to give evidence.

Gibbs was in favour of the State of Emergency, saying, “Good things may come out of it. It gives the country an opportunity to settle down, a respite. It lets the police regroup as an organisation, build relationships with the communities, get social development going. We can gather more intelligence and more understanding of the criminal world.”

Asked why a State of Emergency had been necessary in order for the police to make some of the arrests, he said: “We can do searches and seizures without warrants, it gives police powers to the Defence Force that weren’t there before, so there’s an increased number of people doing policing work.”

However, numbers alone were not enough, he said.

He cautioned that the State of Emergency would “not give the public the immediate end to crime that they expect. Crime will continue. But we intend to bring the levels down. We  have a remit to ensure they stay down and decrease further.”

Looking back at his first year in office, Gibbs said there had been achievements.

“There has been substantial change. There’s been a 20 per cent drop in serious crime and a 20 per cent drop in homicides, up to the (start of the) State of Emergency.”