One day after the T&T Police Service was ordered to discontinue a departmental order used to assess police officers for promotion, Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher promoted 25 police officers.
Harewood-Christopher promoted four officers to the rank of senior superintendent and 21 to the rank of superintendent on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, High Court Judge Westmin James ordered that the decision of the Commissioner’s Office and the Promotion Advisory Board (PAB) to utilise Departmental Order 93 of 2021 in the assessment and promotion of officers from constables to corporals was unlawful, illegal, irrational, procedurally improper, null, void and of no effect. He also chastised both the PAB and Commissioner’s Office in delaying the promotion of officers for some 14 years.
The judgment came after some 30 officers filed a lawsuit against the CoP and the PAB after they were bypassed for promotion.
While most of the officers were promoted before the judgment was given, James ordered that those who were not be compensated for loss of earnings, as they argued they could have been promoted twice and were close to retirement.
In a release issued on Wednesday by the TTPS, Harewood-Christopher congratulated the officers who she described as the “cream of the crop” and encouraged them to excel in their new ranks.
“While we congratulate you, and celebrate your success, there is an important message that must not be lost on the occasion, and that message is simply that this moment is as much about you as it is about the organisation, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service,” she told the officers.
She reminded the officers that with the higher rank, their level of responsibility and leadership must be commensurate with the promotion.
“You cannot assume a higher rank and not understand the more onerous role you must play. You cannot ascend the ranks but assume diminished responsibility. Today, you move into very senior ranks, ranks where you must lead and do so with utmost integrity. Every one of you must rapidly get to the point where you assume personal responsibility for doing what needs to be done, working as if the success of the TTPS depended on you alone.”
She told the officers their promotion comes as the country is facing an unacceptable wave of lawlessness, which presents an unprecedented challenge for the TTPS.
The top cop encouraged the officers to rid the police of rogue officers.
“We must preserve our integrity and maintain our legitimacy, ridding the TTPS of errant officers bent on bringing the organisation into disrepute,” she said, adding that the public demands better of them and they must deliver.
