In our interview with the ComPol today - we also asked about the incident in Seine Bight where a resident is complaining that a cop shot and killed her dog. It's not the first time we've heard of officers shooting dogs and for many owners, their pets are part of their families. But ComPol Williams said that these loving animals can also be vicious and sometimes the owners use them as weapons against the police:
Courtney Menzies
"This is a constant reoccurring thing, where police barged into people's yards and shoot dogs for what dogs do, they bark, they bite."
Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police
"Police have a responsibility, so dogs do what they do, they bite, the police do what they do in terms of responding to incidents and going to search homes where we believe illegal things are conceived. It's a part of police work and we have seen many instances where homeowners, knowing the police is coming, they have ferocious dogs, and they let them loose. All this is being done with the view to make the police's work more difficult. And in situations where that occur, people leave the ferocious dogs loose to attack or bite the police, I will support my officers once they respond proportionately to these kinds of incidents. Let me say that I am an animal lover, I don't believe in being harsh to animals, but at the same time too, animals can be dangerous and we certainly don't want our police officers to be bitten by dogs simply because their owners are so irresponsible or have let these dogs loose to attack the police. Seine Bight is my hometown and I had said when I went there a couple months ago that the way how we police Seine Bight must change and I promised the people of Seine Bight that we will bring change to Seine Bight and we have taken the change to Seine Bight in terms of increasing the number of officers there, putting in place a full sub police formation under the command of a sergeant who is to be promoted soon to inspector and we are seeing good results, I am sure the media might not be happy because there are not much crime coming out of Seine Bight again but the public at large in Seine Bight are happy with the performance of the police there and we are going to ensure that we will continue to do the best we can to make Seine Bight what it used to be."
Courtney Menzies
"Going back to the dogs, when these incidents happen is there any kind of investigation to find out if the owners are at fault or if you just have some trigger happy cops?"
Chester Williams
"Certainly, reports can be made to PSB and PSB will investigate and in situation where we would find that the police officers are at fault, then we deal with it."
