And while the U20 team is getting the equipment they need to compete, today the police department received 2 new vehicles and computer equipment from the Embassy of Taiwan. These vehicles, which were unfortunately still stuck at the border, will be given to the Special Branch while the electronic equipment will be used for more intelligence-based policing. We spoke to the ComPol about how the donation will benefit the precinct.
Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police
"I must say that we're very grateful for the donation, it will go a very long way in terms of fighting crime within our country from an intelligence standpoint. We have always been harping about intelligence led policing, but intelligence led policing is difficult to achieve when the intelligence arm do not possess the equipment that they need to be able to gather intelligence ad do the work that they are required to do and so the equipment as I've said before will surely go a long way to enhancing our ability to fighting crime in an intelligence standpoint."
Reporter
"How would you make sure that your officers take care of these vehicles?"
Chester Williams
"Well I must say special branch do have a high accountability rate in taking care of these vehicles so I have every confidence that that will be done but in addition to what we are certain will be done from their standpoint, the research, planning and inspection unit will also be tasked to ensure they carry out inspection every quarter to make sure that the equipment are being used they way they should and they're probably being maintained."
Courtney Menzies
"Sir is there a need for even more vehicles because I'm not sure if you've seen this video circling around where some officers are in a car while it was raining, and the windows were broken so the water was coming in the car, and they were saying they were getting wet."
Chester Williams
"Well the truth is our fleet of vehicles have depleted, they have served their time and you've heard me say before that we're in the process of acquiring 26 brand new vehicles, we already went through the tender process for those vehicles, as you know in compliance with the financial -- order we must go through a certain process, it's not that we can just say we're going to buy these 26 vehicles and distribute them, we must go through the tendering process so we have done the first stage and I think we're in the second stage of the bid where we'll now decide which of the brand of vehicles we'll go with and once we go through that, we go to the procurement stage and then the vehicles will be purchased. So, we do recognize that there is a significant shortage of vehicles in the department and the government is doing its best to address that concern. I know the officers are frustrated to some extent because they need the tools to get the work done and myself and the minister, we do recognize that hence the reason why we are doing our best to try and secure the additional vehicles for them."
