JENSEN LA VENDE

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro says of­fi­cers are en­trust­ed with ex­tra­or­di­nary pow­ers and have a du­ty to up­hold in­tegri­ty, dis­ci­pline and ser­vice to the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

He added that when that oath is bro­ken, the con­se­quences will be clear, de­ci­sive and im­par­tial.

“Let it be a warn­ing that any of­fi­cer who wears this uni­form and en­gages in crim­i­nal­i­ty will face the full weight of law­ful ac­tion. I will take every step nec­es­sary to re­move you from this or­gan­i­sa­tion. My of­fi­cers will pur­sue crim­i­nals wher­ev­er they are found,” Gue­var­ro said in an au­dio mes­sage shared with the me­dia, a day af­ter he fired 17 of­fi­cers from the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice.

In a me­dia re­lease on Thurs­day, the TTPS said the of­fi­cers’ ap­point­ments had been re­voked by Gue­var­ro. It said the no­tice was is­sued for pub­lic in­for­ma­tion and record in ac­cor­dance with the CoP’s ad­min­is­tra­tive di­rec­tions.

Gue­var­ro yes­ter­day al­so warned crim­i­nals that they will be pur­sued.

“Re­mem­ber that my of­fi­cers will be hunt­ing all crim­i­nals, and in so do­ing, it will be big gouti, small gouti, same shot. In this ser­vice, all are equal be­fore the law, and all are ac­count­able to the peo­ple,” he said.

Mean­while, crim­i­nol­o­gist Dr Randy Seep­er­sad says the fir­ings will au­gur well for the im­age of the TTPS and boost pub­lic con­fi­dence.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Seep­er­sad said the fir­ings mean the po­lice and, by ex­ten­sion, the Gov­ern­ment, are clamp­ing down on crime re­gard­less of so­cial sta­tus or oth­er fac­tors.

“This is very good ev­i­dence for the pub­lic that the Gov­ern­ment and the law en­force­ment agen­cies are re­al­ly go­ing to stand their ground when it comes to this par­tic­u­lar is­sue. And it’s some­thing that’s very im­por­tant, not just for the pub­lic, I dare say, but for the po­lice ser­vice as well, be­cause it sends a very, very clear mes­sage.”

Seep­er­sad added, “This is some­thing that is cer­tain­ly go­ing to get the pub­lic’s at­ten­tion, and it’s some­thing that’s go­ing to in­crease con­fi­dence as well as trust in the po­lice. And that’s a very, very good thing. But I dare say that pub­lic per­cep­tion, the re­search will at least show, is some­times quite fick­le. And some­times it takes some­thing very, very small to al­ter that per­cep­tion.”

He said a clear and con­sis­tent mes­sage must be sent to the pub­lic by the po­lice that it is “in­deed a no-non­sense or­gan­i­sa­tion.” He said of­fi­cers have a very se­ri­ous task ahead of them, which could on­ly be dis­charged with in­tegri­ty and with the high­est stan­dards and noth­ing less than that would be ac­cept­ed.