'A dead cop can't serve' - Federation boss defends police on fatal shootings

 Amid an upsurge in police fatal shootings, Sergeant Raymond Wilson, chairman of the Police Federation, said criminals provoked the confrontations that led to the 255 incidents of fatality recorded in 2013, which is 20 more than the previous year.

Making the keynote address at the Clarendon Police Annual Dinner and Awards Ceremony on the weekend, Wilson argued that along with a 22 per cent rise in gun recovery and a nine per cent uptick in murder, criminals are brazenly confronting the police, who have the authority to use lethal force to defend themselves.

He lamented what he called the long-held perception that whenever police personnel encounter a person with a gun, that person is usually killed.

"That isn't so. The data in front of us is indicating otherwise," Wilson said. "But whenever there is a confrontation, the police will defend themselves, because a dead cop can't serve."

ILLEGAL GUNS RECOVERED

Wilson noted that in 2013, 726 illegal guns were recovered, while 633 persons were arrested on various weapons charges. These figures, he said, indicate that the police aren't wantonly executing people extrajudicially.

"During the same period, 86 gunmen were shot and injured after engaging the police in gunfights. They were rushed to the hospital by the same police and are alive today to give their statements," the federation head said, though admitting that not all cops are "paragons of virtue".

In defence of the police's fatal shootings, he said the Independent Commission of Investigations' probes also show that 80 per cent of all police shootings are above board.