W Supt Claire Guy-Alleyne says the police and their partner agencies will be taking strong action against people who engage in public begging and exploit children in doing so.
She made this comment during a public inquiry into child labour held by the Parliament's Human Rights, Equality and Diversity Committee at the Red House on Friday.
"We have concerns about what appears to be locals as well as migrants begging on the streets," Guy-Alleyne told JSC members."
The police, she continued, sometimes take a soft approach to these cases.
"We try to warn persons, 'Say, listen, you are exposing yourself to danger, stop doing this on the highways and the by-ways.'"
The police have recently realised this practice is not stopping.
Guy-Alleyne said, "So we have decided that we will partner with other agencies. But I'm not letting the cat out of the bag, because this could be a preventative way as well, letting the public know as well what we are going to do as the police."
The police are joining forces with the Children's Authority and Immigration Division.
Guy-Alleyne said, "We will have a joint intervention programme where we will go on an exercise and if persons are found begging, or even if they are in violation of, let's say child labour or even cruelty to children under the Children Act, persons will be arrested and charged."
She added that in this exercise, "We may even pick up persons who are prohibited immigrants, because this thing is becoming a nuisance.
Guy-Alleyne spoke about instances where drivers stop at intersections and people approach them to clean their windshields.
She said in these instances and other cases of public begging, "We see on the corners of the streets as well, we see children and adults, migrants and locals."
With the soft approach not causing a decrease in this behaviour, Guy-Alleyne outlined how the police would deal with people begging in public and using children to do so.
"We are going to operate with a zero-tolerance approach and we are going to do it in a multi-disciplinary way."
She said the police could not undertake such an operation alone.
"If we go alone, it means that when we get back to the station you have to call all these other agencies (Children's Authority, Immigration Division, etc).
"We are going to plan a big exercise where we just go around and we will do what we have to do in order to curb this."
Committee chairman Dr Mohammed Yunus Ibrahim acknowledged Guy-Alleyne's comments about begging in public and people using children as tools to get money for themselves.
He asked how this issue is reflected in local culture.
"How does it apply to the nutsman?"
Ibrahim said some of these people have "residencies with certain (street) lights, within certain lanes on our highways."
He asked Guy-Alleyne how the police would deal with these types of people who are operating in the same environment with beggars and their accomplices.
She replied, "Yes, and they are committing offences. Obstructing of free passageway."
Guy-Alleyne reite
