RYAN BA­CHOO

Lead Ed­i­tor – News­gath­er­ing

Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (CoP), Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher has moved to as­sure the pub­lic that the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) is ful­ly com­mit­ted to a safe car­ni­val, af­ter po­lice of­fi­cers raised con­cerns about back pay.

In a state­ment to the me­dia on Wednes­day af­ter­noon, the CoP aimed to quell con­cerns by the TTPS So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion re­gard­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty of some po­lice of­fi­cers call­ing in sick for Car­ni­val du­ties.

Hare­wood-Christo­pher said she un­der­stands the dis­sat­is­fac­tion among some of­fi­cers re­gard­ing is­sues such as back pay, salary in­creas­es, and pro­mo­tion dis­putes.

She added: “Ad­di­tion­al staff have been de­ployed to ex­pe­dite the pay­ment of out­stand­ing back pay, and ef­forts are un­der­way to ad­dress pro­mo­tion dis­putes.”

Com­mis­sion­er Hare­wood-Christo­pher fur­ther stat­ed,

“I want to re­as­sure the pub­lic that the TTPS is ful­ly com­mit­ted to en­sur­ing a safe and se­cure Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tion. De­spite any in­ter­nal chal­lenges, the TTPS will be out in full force to main­tain law and or­der, pro­tect cit­i­zens and vis­i­tors, and en­sure a fes­tive at­mos­phere con­ducive to en­joy­ment and cel­e­bra­tion.”