The Estate Police Association (EPA) is placing the blame for the latest attack and weapons robbery of the Mi5 security firm squarely on the shoulders of the Ministry of National Security and the Commissioner of Police.
Andrew Dardaine, president of the EPA, said the Association wrote to former CoP Trevor Paul three years ago and current CoP James Philbert last year, requesting a meeting to discuss the ’growing attacks’ on security officers but has not gotten a response from either person.
Dardaine said after EPA’s initial investigation yesterday, it was learned that the stolen guns were not loaded. He said he also learned that the female officer on duty on Sunday, was precepted, but unarmed.
’Precepted officers, especially while on duty, must always carry their weapon with them,’ he explained adding that he does not know why the security officer did not have her weapon on her at the time of the robbery.
He said he spoke with Aaron Henry, Mi 5’s chief executive officer, and will be granted access the video surveillance tapes of the robbery by 10 a.m. today.
’The EPA will also visit the scene tomorrow (today) to ensure the area was properly set up,’ he said. Dardaine explained that he wants to ensure that the safeboxes were locked and the armoury was in the proper, designated place.
According to Dardaine, there are no standards or regulations governing the local security industry. He said more than 75 per cent of the 300 local security companies are not legally registered, yet they are still issued firearms by the CoP’s office.
’We want to raise the industry standard and the only people to do that is the Ministry of National Security and, by extension, the Commissioner of Police,’ he said.
Andrew Brown, EPA trustee, added that this was not the first time a security company was robbed for the year.
’In the last couple of months, not just firearms but shotguns were stolen from security officers,’ Brown explained.
When the Express contacted Henry yesterday, he said he was with authorised personnel, reviewing the tapes of the robbery.
