The ques­tion­ing, de­ten­tion, ar­rest and sub­se­quent re­lease of Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher con­tin­ues to raise ques­tions.

No one is above the law, not even the CoP. Does one need to ar­rest some­one to ques­tion them dur­ing an in­ves­ti­ga­tion, es­pe­cial­ly a CoP in the mid­dle of a State of Emer­gency (SoE)? Po­lice of­fi­cers have ex­ten­sive pow­ers dur­ing a SoE and main­tain­ing dis­ci­pline is cru­cial. The ar­rest of the CoP and the for­mer Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency (SSA) head would have led the pub­lic to con­clude that the in­ves­ti­ga­tion was at an ad­vanced stage. Yet both in­di­vid­u­als were re­leased with­out charge.

And now, Mrs Hare­wood-Christo­pher’s has giv­en an ul­ti­ma­tum, which ex­pires at 2 pm to­day, to the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PolSC) to re­scind her sus­pen­sion or­der.

The ar­rest of the CoP is a blow to the cred­i­bil­i­ty of her of­fice and the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice, but al­so her char­ac­ter as well. It has left the pub­lic con­fused. The ab­sence of facts or a com­pre­hen­sive pub­lic state­ment to clear the air will lead to spec­u­la­tion. Com­mis­sion­er Hare­wood-Christo­pher has in­alien­able rights and her at­tor­ney has in­di­cat­ed that those rights will be pro­tect­ed. 

De­mo­c­ra­t­ic gov­ern­ment is char­ac­terised by the sep­a­ra­tion of pow­ers be­tween the leg­isla­tive, ex­ec­u­tive and ju­di­cial branch­es. Po­lice of­fi­cers play an im­por­tant role in main­tain­ing law and or­der. The TTPS, as an in­sti­tu­tion, must re­main sep­a­rate and in­de­pen­dent, free from po­lit­i­cal in­ter­fer­ence. The cur­rent ap­point­ment process of the CoP in­cludes par­lia­men­tary ap­proval for trans­paren­cy. How­ev­er, the sud­den with­draw­al of the mer­it list in the last com­pet­i­tive ef­fort to ap­point a com­mis­sion­er demon­strat­ed that the process can be com­pro­mised. 

In March 2024, DCP Suzette Mar­tin, a PolSC nom­i­nee, was ap­point­ed by Gov­ern­ment MPs with­out Op­po­si­tion sup­port. Two min­is­ters in the cur­rent ad­min­is­tra­tion, Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds and Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter Ayan­na Web­ster-Roy, spoke en­thu­si­as­ti­cal­ly in favour of DCP Mar­tin based on their per­son­al knowl­edge. 

The tim­ing of the CoP’s ar­rest is, there­fore, in­con­ve­nient, as it comes short­ly be­fore the ex­pi­ra­tion of Hare­wood-Christo­pher’s con­tract and could af­fect the com­pe­ti­tion for the job. DCP Mar­tin is in­volved in the in­ves­ti­ga­tion and is a pos­si­ble suc­ces­sor. Hav­ing been se­vere­ly crit­i­cised in the Brent Thomas mat­ter, DCP Mar­tin should be aware of the im­por­tance of due process and the role of pub­lic scruti­ny. The po­lice me­dia con­fer­ence on Fri­day last and yes­ter­day did noth­ing to clear the air or re­in­force pub­lic trust.

An elec­tion year brings many un­ex­pect­ed de­vel­op­ments, dra­ma and con­fu­sion. In­tim­i­da­tion and char­ac­ter as­sas­si­na­tion in the court of pub­lic opin­ion are the cus­tom­ary weapons. In 2010, the Op­po­si­tion al­leged that their phone calls were mon­i­tored by the na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty ser­vices. Af­ter win­ning the elec­tion, the Se­cu­ri­ty In­tel­li­gence Agency (SIA) and the Spe­cial An­ti-Crime Unit (SAUTT) were dis­band­ed. In 2011, the SoE was de­clared be­cause there was an al­leged plot to as­sas­si­nate the prime min­is­ter and some of her cab­i­net min­is­ters. 

In Ju­ly 2024, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, in a state­ment to Par­lia­ment, re­vealed that the pro­cure­ment of high-pow­ered weapons and the train­ing of per­son­nel to use them were part of a pos­si­ble plot by the SSA to re­place the Gov­ern­ment. The SoE was called short­ly there­after be­cause of gang vi­o­lence. 

How will this cur­rent episode end? Time will cer­tain­ly tell.