Walking around the Queen's Park Savannah with retired Corporal Marjorie John, a young cyclist jostling with pedestrians for space on the pitched area, not only nearly bounced down this once formidable member of the police service, but then gave her some strong words when she pointed out that riding on the savannah was an offence.
"In my day he would have had two choices, either to be taken down to the station and charged or to dismount, remove with his hands the valves from the tyres, throw them into the bushes and push his bike the rest of the way."
But she lamented "there are no longer police patrols on a scheduled basis to deal with on the spot offences, and in my opinion this is one of the reasons why while the Anaconda programme may work, it cannot last. It will bring strain on the station districts where there is normally already nobody to send. I am sure it is already depleting the strength of the various areas. Anaconda would have to get special people, just joining, so I do not feel it is something that can last."
John a member of the police force for a quarter of a century, is also well known for her contribution to sport which she feels made life easier for those members of the force who were well known in the sporting arena. She has been inducted into the West Indian Tobacco Hall of Fame as an "all rounder", having represented the country at table tennis, netball, cricket and basketball. She also played hockey, lawn tennis, football, chess, and tried her hand at cycling, fencing and rifle shooting.
But it was not about sport that we spoke. It was about the increase in crime throughout Trinidad and Tobago. And she is convinced that "what is necessary is patrol which is a constant thing. You always saw the police out there. People get to know you, they have to interact with you, so you must always be there and always involved. After the traffic people go in to attend court at 10 a.m. there is hardly anybody out there nowadays. In my opinion there is not sufficient supervision of the station districts in the form of patrols either mobile or on foot."
But, I argued, the solution to this heavy concentration of crime cannot be as simple as patrols. "Oh yes we had a lot of foot patrols because the police in every area need to have an idea of who lives in which house. If you know, you can knock on a door and ask let me use your telephone to get help. You are better able to relate to the community, people get to know the police so they will get more information. And do not tell me about community police because everybody in our time was a community police since you were out there with the people. Everybody had their special people who would come and say what is happening. Here again people are afraid now as they do not know if they make a report in the station who will repeat who came to make a report."
There were also school patrols which were the main purpose of the women who came into the service, to deal with juveniles and reports involving women and children. "The children have to know you, you cross them, you chat with them and that was how it was. I do not know what is going on now. You do not see patrols, you aint seeing anything. Also the seniors would come out one day and see if they were satisfied with what the patrols were achieving. The executive officers as well would take a drive outside without letting those on patrol know that they were around."
This did not mean that the women did not do other things. such as enquiries into traffic and ordinary police work but that was their specialised function.
There were WP1 forms that the women filed at the Women Police Branch with a record of anything that a juvenile did. "You kept track of them until they were at an age to be fingerprinted, so if a magistrate asked if there was anything known against him or her, you called up the branch and got the record. We also had warning sessions in the stations. Refreshment would be served in the recreation room, the Superintendent would come and chat with the children about the offence committed with a parent present. Rather than take a first time offender to court, a warning was given, followed by a caution which was the next offence because your name went into the caution book, thereafter it was to court."
The Women Police Branch also made sure that the women conformed with the rules and regulations that were there to govern them, for instance, the women's dormitories at the St James Barracks were out of bounds to the men because says John "it was maintained that Familiarity breeds Contempt. That is where we lived for six months of training, it was a new way of life and interesting, so we did not mind it."
Why aren't there foot patrols on a continuous basis any longer? "Could be the management we have do not see it necessary. Maybe there are too many functions to perform, guarding here, there and everywhere, but they should ask for more police."
With the present rate of ownership of guns by every young and older criminal, wouldn't foot patrols be dangerous? "They will have to go out armed" was John's reply. "If there is a problem with the foot patrol then go in a vehicle but you must have the patrols. We from the service are very concerned. We used to be out on patrol for four hours at a time. Another thing was that the people from the CID would come and ask: you have anybody out there. If we didn't they would go out and give us a hand with patrolling."
Where is the protection for the people and supervision for the people, asks this very concerned woman. "People were afraid of the police which might not have been correct but perhaps it served a purpose then. But we started to discourage people from using the police as bogeymen."
During her career in the police force, Marjorie and three of her colleagues were seconded to the army's training wing for six months to assist with supervision for the first batch of female recruits who lived at the St Ann's Community Centre.
Another thing which she grieves about is the fact that "we have come from the best dressed police in the Caribbean and now could be rated the worst in the world."
Last but not least, Marjorie is concerned about the publicity given police matters. We have to stop airing our linen in public. There is too much publicity beforehand about plans to deal with particular reports of crime. Recently there was a rapist in the gardens: "Everything hit the front page, so that is to tell the bandit don't come back here, instead of setting a trap to catch him."