ATTORNEY Lee Merry, director of High Tide Project, a non-profit Caribbean police-reform organisation incorporated in TT, is calling for harsher penalties for police officers who fail to attend court, which leads to cases being thrown out.

Merry and Kashka Hemans, both attorneys, are founders of the organisation.

The duo sought information on disciplinary proceedings against absent officers on February 8, and received a response on June 18. A similar exercise will be done in other Caribbean islands soon.

It is expected that the next country will be Jamaica, of which Hemans is a citizen.

Merry told Newsday not enough is being done to encourage officers to attend court.

Merry, a former prosecutor, said while he believes disciplining officers is commendable, the number of officers disciplined was far too low compared with the number of cases dismissed.

“Even when they are identified and disciplined, which is not often as far as we understand, no-show officers are simply fined one or two days' pay. The lack of accountability means that officers are not deterred from missing their cases, or, to put it another way, they are not encouraged to attend court and take their job as complainants seriously.”

He added this lack of accountability fosters a culture where officers feel they can charge whoever they like and then simply fail to show up.

“The only way to stop this cycle is to identify and punish, with serious penalties, all officers whose action or inaction leads to the collapse of a criminal case.”

Between 2015 and 2020, 88 police officers were disciplined for failing to attend court, resulting in the cases being dismissed. The punishments for their crimes were a pay cut for one to three days.

Failing to attend court is a category B offence and carries a maximum fine of ten days' pay and is presided over by one senior police officer above the rank of superintendent.

Police not only to blame

Newsday spoke with head of the police association, acting ASP Gideon Dickson, who said the officers who are disciplined are the ones reported to the police complaints department.

He explained that after a matter is dismissed for want of prosecution, the police assigned to the courts have a duty to report the matter and an internal investigation will be done.

If the reason for missing court is not satisfactory, a one-man tribunal is set up to adjudicate.

Responding to the data provided to High Tide, Dickson said delays in court, ending in case dismissals, should not be a case of pointing fingers at police officers. He admitted there were various delays on the police side, such as collecting exhibits from the Forensic Sciences Centre, but said there were also delays on the defence side which contribute to cases being thrown out.

“Many times the defence finds crafty ways to prolong a matter because it is an ‘eat ah food' principle. We need to be fair in terms of how we point our finger, because what we have to do is look at the cases that the officers charged people for. The cases that are dismissed ar