Amid an upsurge in police fatal shootings, police federation chairman, Sergeant Raymond Wilson said criminals provoked the confrontations that led to 255 civilians being killed in 2013, 20 more than the previous year.
Addressing the Clarendon police's annual dinner and awards at the weekend, Wilson argued that with a 22 per cent raise 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 encountered someone with a gun, that person is usually killed.
"That isn't so. The data in front of us is indicating otherwise, but whenever there is a confrontation, the police will defend themselves, because a dead cop can't serve," Sergeant Wilson told his colleagues.
Wilson noted that in 2013, 726 illegal guns were covered, 633 persons arrested for various weapons charges. These figures, he said, is a clear indication that the police do not wantonly execute people extra-judicially.
"During the same period, 86 gunmen were shot and injured after engaging the police in gun fights. they were rushed to the hospital by the same police and are alive today to give their statements," the chairman recalled.
In a stout defence of the police's fatal shootings, he said INDECOM's investigation into the security force's fatal-shooting case file also show that 80 per cent of all police shootings were above board.
"I am not saying that all of us are paragons of virtue," he added.
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