Long wait in record HEAT for POLICE RECORDS’ collection

By Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer 

#TurksandCaicos, July 17, 2023 – Processing of police records has sped up with the advent of a new online system but residents say collection of the certificates is still a painfully long process that needs to be addressed.

Wait time for processing of the certificates has been cut down to 5 days according to authorities, after which they can be signed and are supposed to be ready for pickup.

However, Magnetic Media has begun to receive complaints of long lines and long waiting to get those records in hand.

Early Wednesday (July 12), we received videos of dozens of residents lined up and as the day passed, the number seemed to increase with no chairs for the waiting residents, even the elderly in sight.

In a press release early Thursday morning Police say the videos are inaccurate; captured around 2:30 and blame residents for boisterous behaviour.

The press release also seemed to indicate the line was minimised within ten minutes and does not address any long wait times.

“The recording creates an inaccurate representation that does not truly reflect the distribution of Police Records— From 2:30 p.m. numbers are given to applicants. This process was implemented due to individuals coming to the Records Unit after 2:30 p.m. Such individuals refused to join the line and wait their turn, often pushing and shoving applicants already in line and crowding the Records Unit door demanding their records. In several instances, such persons are not in possession of ANY documentation showing their online application or proof of payment of the prescribed fees. Had the person who took the video stayed 10 minutes longer, they would have witnessed ALL genuine applicants being catered to and dealt with professionally and the line minimised within that time frame.”

But that directly contradicts multiple accounts from residents supported by video evidence. We received the first video around 11:00 am TCI time on Wednesday and emailed the police at 11:49 am which went without an answer. Police sent their statement addressing the issue at 6:18 am Thursday.

No video we had showed any pushing or shoving. In a subsequent video just after one pm Wednesday, residents could be seen reaching for their numbers being handed out by officers, again, no pushing.

Police have not addressed the lack of shade, seats or even refreshments as residents wait for an extended period for what is supposed to be just the collection of records that are already ready.

The issue seems not to be with the online system but the manual ‘signing and stamping’ part of the process. We spoke to E Jay Saunders, Deputy Premier  who told us that the online application system, while still in beta, was working well.

“So far, I’ve seen two reports of wait times past the five days, although I expect that there are more. One had been waiting two days past the five days. The other may be three days past the goal of five days. In each case above, the applicant had uploaded a photo that didn’t meet the requirements of the RTCIP force. Unfortunately, such applications were left as “Pending,” as it required a new photo or manual intervention, and the system never alerted the applicants to the same.”

The Deputy Premier explained that snag is already being rectified; adding thousands of other applications have been successfully completed.

We have reached out to the police to find out what is being done to ease the heavy traffic at their collection site especially as the August 1st date when the system will be open to all residents nears.

Up to news publication time, no response was shared with our news team.