The Tribune

A WOMAN is in fear of her life after filing a police report with officers she now suspects might be corrupt.

Insisting on anonymity, the woman said she reported to police several weeks ago that a neighbour was selling drugs from the front yard of his home.

Red flags went up for her a short time later about the officers’ integrity, she said, when the neighbour threatened he would kill her for reporting him to the police.

“The guy is out there and he starts cursing me saying that I was the ‘b----’ who reported him to police. ‘The police can’t do anything with me’ he said. He told me to stay out of his way or else I would die.

“I will ‘f---’ you up, is what he told me.”

The man was eventually taken into custody after police who had accompanied her to her home, observed for themselves a drug deal going down. However, that arrest has not lessened her fears as the man’s family members have continued to threaten her with death.

On at least two other occasions, she said, conversations were overheard in which the neighbour’s family insisted that an officer told him that she was the informant and that thousands would again have to be spent to “bribe the police” and have him released.

“One relative said ‘this is going to cost me a good $2,000 or $3,000 to bribe somebody to get him out and I just had to do this last week.’”

At one point, the woman said, the police claimed that they could not offer further assistance.

About two days after the policeman witnessed the drug transaction as she had reported, she left for the United States to take her child to the doctor.

“I went away and then we came back, but I was paranoid and really scared. I called the officers and I said I really don’t know what’s going on around there, but I am scared to go home. He called me back and said these are your options, you can either go to a hotel, go to a family member, or we’ll have the police escort you home to make sure you are all right, because Witness Protection is closed for the night.”

She then sought an assurance of protection from Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade who told her that the matter would be rectified.

“The Commissioner asked if I felt I needed to move, I said ‘yes’ and he said that I should begin looking and get back to him.”

He told her to find something very nice, she recalled.

However, the woman said she was told by an assistant to the commissioner that the RBPF could only assist her with the first and last month’s rent for an apartment. She, however, felt that offer would not support her comfortable living conditions as she was already living in her own home. She could not afford to pay rent for another home.

The woman also feels that local authorities have failed to ensure the safety, not only of herself, but of her children.

“This community policing thing, yes they say it works, but when it puts someone’s life in danger then what?

“I did what I thought I was supposed to do. It just so happened that the officers who took my call were dirty cops. And that puts my life in danger and I’m out there on my own,” she said.