Did San Pedro Cop Steal from a Detainee?
Chester Williams
It happened about a month ago but the public is only hearing about it now – a police officer attached to the San Pedro Police Station allegedly stole the property of a man detained at the station. It was allegedly captured on surveillance footage but the victim doesn’t want to court action and the cop is denying it happened. The speculation is that it was kept quiet because the cop’s parents are senior members of the force. Today, Commissioner Williams says that the officer isn’t being afforded special considerations but that it is simply being dealt with as an internal matter. Here’s what he had to say.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“That matter did occur and it happened about a month ago. I spoke with Mr. Noble when it just occurred and the person whose property was stolen didn’t request or wanted any court action. So, what I directed Mr. Noble to do was to deal with the matter internally. So, the officer in question was placed on disciplinary charge and she went before a tribunal and plead not guilty and the matter is before the tribunal currently.”
Reporter
“However sir is this special or some kind of differential treatment because both her parents are police officers – I know her father is a senior police officer?”
Chester Williams
“No there is no preferential treatment where is concerned. That is the process we normally go through and I am sure that you know this has always been the case. If we have situations where the person whose property was taken away do not wish to proceed with the matter criminally then we would normally proceed by way of tribunal and in some cases we don’t even proceed any at all. So, in ensuring that the officer is held accountable, I directed that she be placed on disciplinary charges.”
Reporter
“Now we know that if the complainant is somebody who is detained at the time – you know, they are already in a compromised situation – was there every possible situation made to encourage the complainant to exercise their right to bring that charge?”
Chester Williams
“Yes that was done and even after the fact Mr. Noble went back to the persona and the person maintained his position that he didn’t want to proceed with the matter criminally and so we resorted to the next option which is to deal with it internally.”
