By NALINEE SEELAL Friday, September 10 2010

PRESIDENT of the Police Social Welfare Association Sgt Anand Ramesar yesterday described plans by the Government to introduce bicycle policing as another attempt to exploit officers. “I see this as another opportunity to exploit police officers without having a proper compensation package in place,” Ramesar said.

“The riding of bicycles is not within the job spec of police officers and I am not aware of any research or analysis being done to ascertain what impact this will have on alleviating crime in Trinidad and Tobago.

“Further, I have considered the treatment of motorcyclists and drivers in Trinidad and Tobago, and noticed an absence of insurance to cover personal injuries and I feel that before any bicycle unit should even be considered, the question of providing insurance for police officers for personal injury should be dealt with and I recommend coverage of not less than $1 million per officer,” Ramesar said.

“Having regard to the recent killing of police officers, for obvious reasons, a bicycle makes a police officer a sitting target for any would-be assailant who is minded to attack them,” Ramesar said. He even suggested a gym be made available in every Police Division to facilitate physical fitness so officers well-being would be given priority over other issues.

Also yesterday, Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams admitted that no discussion was held with him with respect to the introduction of bicycle police for selected communities.

Williams said he had no discussion with the Government over the introduction of such patrols and added: “I have not given this issue of bicycle policing careful thought and I am not in a position to say whether I support or not support it at this time.”

On Wednesday during the presentation of the 2010-2011 Budget, Minister of Finance Winston Dookeran said: “It is the view of this Government that the introduction of bicycles for police to conduct patrols in some communities is a sound one and this is our intention, to deploy bicycles into the police service for this purpose. To introduce the bicycle patrols will go a long way to introduce a stronger police presence.”

On June 30, 2008, then Acting Police Commissioner James Philbert revealed that bicycle cops were expected to be out on the streets before the end of July. He said officers of the new Bicycle Unit were not expected to ride into crime hot spots including the hills and terrains of Laventille, but were to be despatched to shopping and residential areas such as Chaguanas, Arouca and Woodbrook.