On Monday we told you about the San Pedro policeman who had gotten into
a crash with a police mobile on the island's northside. He appeared
intoxicated as he told a bystander not to capture the pickup stuck on
the sidewalk - and not to post it on Facebook.
Now, he sounded drunk, those at the scene said he smelled like he had
been drinking, and he seemed to be walking unevenly. But, today police
said he's diabetic, not drunk. The head of professional standards said
no sample was taken:
Supt Dwayne Sutherland - OC, Professional Standards Branch
"Even though there is a video and the video depicted the officer to be
speaking in such a way to be considered slurred, the video itself does
not give us sufficient evidence to say that the officer was indeed
consuming alcohol or drugs. The only thing that can prove that would
have been a sample taken from the officer and would then be analysed
and give us the evidence to whether that officer was consuming some
form of alcoholic beverage but what has been done in that regards, the
officer commanding San Pedro police station, Mr. Noble, he has
addressed the matter with the officer concerned and the vehicle
received minor damages and those damages were repaired by the officer
concerned. So as far as I'm concerned, the matter has been addressed
and that matter is considered closed by professional standard's
branch."
Reporter
"It's not possible to confirm that he was drunk but perhaps, you go with
the commissioner's opinion that he in fact has diabetes and his blood sugar
was low."
Supt Dwayne Sutherland
"The investigation as we conducted did reveal that the officer has a number
of different ailments and it was learnt that at times when the officer is
being affected at times greater than normal with diabetes, he would
normally speak slower indeed."
Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police
"People for me, I'm not a doctor but I have seen people who suffer from
diabetes react in different ways when not on their medication. I have seen
instances where some even passed out. We have had instances where some
actually crash and killed other people because of not having their
medication in them and Mr. Noble who is in San Pedro was on top of that
incident from it occurred and he has reported me and I have no reason to
doubt Mr. Noble, that every police officer who was at the station confirmed
to him that the officer had no aroma of alcohol and that when the officer
got to the station, he was taken home to get his medication because he was
acting out and after having taken his medication, he began to normalize. I
don't know what happened, I don't travel with diabetes, so I can't say that
when the blood sugar goes low, that cause you to become disoriented but
from what we learnt was that, it was the fact that he needed his
medication. I'm not going to condemn the poor officer, people suffer from
illnesses and we who don't suffer from it, we cannot judge them and I can
tell you that the officer was drunk and we have proof of it, it wouldn't do
me no good to cover his behaviour, I would be the first to let you know
that he was drunk and I would let you know what I did in respect to his
conduct. Covering police misconduct will not make us any better, it will
just send us more into a hole. When we have misconduct, it must be
addressed swiftly, so other officers get the message."
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