As we have been reporting - Corozal is plagued by narco violence - and tonight, a man from that town is in hiding and his family fears for their life - after the leaked copy of his police informant transcript appeared on Facebook. Worse than that, it appeared on the page of one of the men - a reported drug gang leader - whom he was informing on!
But how did the informant's full transcript of an interview he gave the G-I-3 end up on Facebook? Are the cops selling out their sources to the gangsters? We asked the Compol today - and he said the problem isn't police informing on informers - it's when court disclosure gets out:
Jules Vasquez
"The misconduct of police endangering the life of criminal informants."
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"It's something we have to look at and let me say that it is not a leak, per say. You would know that when a person is charged, the court do order disclosure and those information were issued as a part of disclosure to a case. I am hoping that going forward, the courts are going to be more receptive or cooperative with the police in terms of these investigations that whenever disclosures are given, that we will be allowed to block out certain information pertinent to witnesses, not just in gang cases, but in every case that may likely cause witnesses to be threatened."
"I know that the witness anonymity bill which has been passed in the house do provide the mechanism for the prosecution to be able to apply to the court in certain cases that when disclosures are given that we can block out all information that may lead to the identity of the witness or witnesses. So we are hoping that we can get some enforcement to that and it will help to protect potential as well as current witnesses. So, it troubles me certainly as the commissioner of police, because we don't want to ve doing things that endangers the life of people and I would hope that when we make these applications to the court, the court will not just look at the right or interest of the accused person, but also display that balancing act in the balancing the right of the accused to know who are the persons who are going to give evidence against him or her with the right of the witness who may be threatened."
"So it is something that we will certainly put forward to the judiciary to see how to what extent they can go in accommodating our request in blocking out the information pertinent to the identity of witnesses."
Jules Vasquez
"In this case will any protection be provided to that family? Multiple members of that family are named in there and they are scared for their life."
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Certainly, I have been in communication with the OC in Corozal on that matter and we will do what we can to protect that individual and I will just leave it at that."
