An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

The T&T Po­lice Ser­vice So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion (TTPSS­WA) wants Gov­ern­ment to re­vis­it the law gov­ern­ing the se­lec­tion of top posts with­in the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS), as they be­lieve the process is not work­ing and has be­come po­lit­i­cal­ly taint­ed.

Call­ing for the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties to re­think their strat­e­gy and to im­ple­ment sys­tems, mech­a­nisms and even the law to re­move such in­ter­fer­ence, the as­so­ci­a­tion said, “In no oth­er en­ti­ty un­der Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty and oth­er­wise, is there the need for par­lia­men­tary in­ter­ven­tion for se­lec­tion of top of­fice hold­ers.”

Ad­dress­ing re­porters dur­ing a me­dia brief­ing at the River­side Plaza, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day, TTPSS­WA pres­i­dent, In­sp Gideon Dick­son, raised this and sev­er­al oth­er is­sues neg­a­tive­ly af­fect­ing the morale of of­fi­cers.

Say­ing they had wit­nessed a de­gree of pol­i­tics in polic­ing with­in re­cent times, which ought not to ex­ist, he said they could not ig­nore what was un­fold­ing al­most on a dai­ly ba­sis.

Cit­ing an ex­am­ple of such in­ter­fer­ence, he said the elec­tion process for the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (CoP) and Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (DCP) had been un­de­ni­ably taint­ed by such in­ter­fer­ence.

He warned, “These in­stances are bring­ing to the fore an im­pact on the foot sol­diers, the gate­keep­ers, on the ca­reer of­fi­cers, and these things are not do­ing much for the morale of po­lice of­fi­cers.”

Dick­son re­called that the process to se­lect a DCP be­gan in March 2023 and cul­mi­nat­ed in No­vem­ber 2023, where three per­sons were short­list­ed.

How­ev­er, he stat­ed, “This or­gan­i­sa­tion, which is a struc­tured or­gan­i­sa­tion, has not en­joyed the ben­e­fit of three DCPs since De­cem­ber 2021.

“There is no jus­ti­fi­able rea­son why this can­not take place. The sys­tem that is in train is one where the most se­nior per­son, based on qual­i­fi­ca­tion, ex­pe­ri­ence, ex­per­tise and the law, could al­so pick up that ap­point­ment.”

He said the TTPS was be­ing in­cor­rect­ly and wrong­ful­ly as­sessed and as a re­sult, they were be­ing tak­en for grant­ed.

Re­fer­ring to the three names short­list­ed, Dick­son said they had been sub­mit­ted to Par­lia­ment with­in the last month for scruti­ny and the mat­ter was de­ferred twice, leav­ing the TTPS with­out any con­firmed DCPs.

“That can­not be fair to us as an or­gan­i­sa­tion,” he said.

Look­ing at the short­com­ings of the mi­nor­i­ty of po­lice of­fi­cers who man­aged to bring the TTPS in­to dis­re­pute, Dick­son de­fend­ed of­fi­cers as he said the ma­jor­i­ty of them were law-abid­ing agents.

De­spite this, he said every time an of­fi­cer com­mit an in­frac­tion, it is high­light­ed and cre­ates a ‘knee-jerk re­ac­tion’ among those in au­thor­i­ty “to find ways and means to try to re­view po­lice op­er­a­tions.”

“And even with that, there is a deaf­en­ing si­lence by our CoP.”

Call­ing on Hare­wood-Christo­pher to stand in de­fence of her of­fi­cers, Dick­son said, “The liveli­hoods and ca­reers of of­fi­cers are not be­ing tak­en re­al, are not be­ing tak­en se­ri­ous­ly.”

He said the TTPS was the na­tion’s pri­ma­ry law en­force­ment agency, yet con­tin­ued to be treat­ed as a step-child.

He rec­om­mend­ed, “The in­sti­tu­tion that is sup­posed to be in­de­pen­dent in terms of se­lect­ing, re­cruit­ing and ap­point­ing ... give them the au­thor­i­ty to do that. Par­lia­ment should not be in­ter­ven­ing in the process to ap­point a CoP or DCP. Our par­lia­men­tar­i­ans come and sit for five years at max­i­mum.

“Of­fi­cers sign up their en­tire ca­reer based on qual­i­fi­ca­tions, based on the rigour, based on the vet­ting, the scruti­ny that goes with it and at this junc­ture here, the con­sis­tent at­tempts to be able to treat with those who have to lead us as an or­gan­i­sa­tion, it is be­com­ing al­most over­whelm­ing. It is hav­ing a neg­a­tive im­pact on the ca­reer of­fi­cers and it should not be so. It is not hap­pen­ing in the Prison. It is not hap­pen­ing in the Fire. It is not hap­pen­ing in the De­fence Force. It ought not to be hap­pen­ing in the TTPS.”