Police chief defends force’s actions in Les Genats stand-off
Tuesday 25th October 2011, 1:00PM BST.
Police directing traffic away from the Route de Carteret entrance to Les Genats last week during an incident which followed a domestic disturbance. (Picture by Tom Tardif, 1189669)
GUERNSEY’S chief of police has written to Les Genats residents to justify the force’s actions after it closed the estate down during a domestic incident last week.
Patrick Rice said that when officers received information that indicated a potential threat, immediate action had to be taken to ensure the safety of the parties concerned and members of the public.
A 31-year-old woman was arrested and released on police bail following the incident on Tuesday 18 October, which had left neighbours unable to get in or out of the estate. A firearms team was deployed and there was a six-hour stand-off until around 9.15pm.
‘During such incidents information needed by the police is often fragmented or not readily available and yet decisions have to be made in a timely fashion,’ Mr Rice said.
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Has to justify the actions whether they were necessary or not.
Firearms team was deployed so there was a either a report of a firearm being seen or the Police have one registered at that address. In both cases very easy to confirm (you have a witness to question or you have the records).
Most people will find it hard to believe that a six hour lock down was required and not only of the estate but a large part of the surrounding area.
Even if a firearm was involved it was contained within a property and therefore the danger was to anyone in the line of sight of that property once a police cordon had been established around the premises.
As it seems to have turned out the greatest danger was from the police with their firearms and armoured cars, otherwise why release the woman on police bail.
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Fair enough, I think in an unknown situation he did the right thing to close the estate. Its closing the surrounding roads that was downright stupid and unnecessary. Just as one example there is no reason at all why table tennis couldn’t have gone ahead.
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Can’t we just be greatful that nobody got hurt on this occassion. The Police are always in the firing line when it comes to criticism from the public, mainly due to speculation and rumours. I am greatful I was inconvenienced on my way home and steered well clear of any potential danger.
Was it a waste of tax payers money ?? What price could you put on the prevention of loss of life.
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It seems the only threat from firearms came from the over zelous police. Was this Just a show of strength for the russian maffia.
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SJ: “What price could you put on the prevention of loss of life”
This is a fatuous argument. It is an unpalatable fact of life that a price is always put on saving life. For example the health service does it every day. There is no question that lives could be saved or prolonged by spending vastly more on medical research, resources and staff. But would the public accept living those longer lives in poverty when taxes go through the roof? The same goes for all forms of transport – lives lost are weighed against money spent. Somebody always finds a balance between cost and outcome.
Some peoples’ jobs include the responsibility of trading expenditure against possible loss of life. To my mind our police chief, and the States who indulge him, are getting it wrong time after time. It is absurd to spend collossal amounts of money on armoured cars at any time in Guernsey, let alone when we are broke. No wonder he trots them out at every opportunity. Despite his desire to view Guernsey as some post-apocalypse ghetto the island just has the odd bit of serious crime, most of the time it is fairly minor stuff and, as in this case it seems, ‘domestics’. Yes, this could have turned into a ‘Friday The 13th’ style bloodbath but it didn’t and probably never would – with or without half the local police force burning up overtime and disrupting the public. Sadly some people do get killed on Guernsey, sometimes even by firearms. This is nothing new. If you think of the actual cases you will not find any which could have been prevented by Mr Rice and his militaristic, big brother approach. Please let us be rid of this man and return to a style of policing appropriate to Guernsey.
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