Asha Javeed

Lead Ed­i­tor In­ves­ti­ga­tions

asha.javeed@guardian.co.tt

The coun­try’s first fe­male Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher, has been re­moved.

The day af­ter she was ar­rest­ed, the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PolSC) dis­missed Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (CoP) Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher and wrote to Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo to ap­point Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (DCP) Ju­nior Ben­jamin as her re­place­ment.

In a let­ter to Kan­ga­loo, which she re­ceived on Jan­u­ary 31, the PolSC said that it di­rect­ed Hare­wood-Christo­pher to “cease to re­port for du­ty and cease to dis­charge the du­ties of Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice.”

At the time, Hare­wood-Christo­pher was ar­rest­ed and de­tained at the St Clair Po­lice Sta­tion for ques­tion­ing over the grant­i­ng of an im­port li­cence to se­cure mil­i­tary-grade equip­ment for the Se­cu­ri­ty Ser­vices Agency (SSA). 

The PolSC, which is chaired by crim­i­nol­o­gist Dr Wen­dell Wal­lace, said its de­ci­sion was as a re­sult of the on­go­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic of­fice.

In its let­ter, it rec­om­mend­ed that  Ben­jamin be ap­point­ed to act as Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice and Curt Si­mon be ap­point­ed act­ing Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice in his stead. 

Ben­jamin is at the top of the PolSC’s or­der mer­it list for se­nior po­lice of­fi­cers el­i­gi­ble to act as com­mis­sion­er.

The day the let­ter reached the Pres­i­dent, she wrote to Par­lia­ment in­form­ing them of the mat­ter to be de­bat­ed. In a no­tice post­ed last night, Par­lia­ment an­nounced that the two no­ti­fi­ca­tions—Ben­jamin and Si­mon—will be de­bat­ed on Wednes­day, Feb­ru­ary 5.

How­ev­er, the day af­ter the no­tice was sent, Sat­ur­day, Hare­wood-Christo­pher was re­leased with­out charges.

Ac­cord­ing to a press re­lease by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice, the in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to her and for­mer di­rec­tor of the SSA Roger Best re­main on­go­ing. 

At the St Clair Po­lice Sta­tion, min­utes af­ter her re­lease on Sat­ur­day, the ques­tion was put to Hare­wood-Christo­pher’s lawyer Pamela El­der SC on whether she would re­sume du­ties as COP.

“That will have to be dis­cussed. We have to put pen to pa­per,” El­der told the me­dia. 

At that time, El­der would have been aware of the PolSC’s no­tice to her client. 

Ac­cord­ing to Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice and Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice 1175 ((Se­lec­tion Process) (No. 2) Or­der 2021 un­der the con­sti­tu­tion, “Where–(a) the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice is or is like­ly to be– (i) ab­sent from Trinidad and To­ba­go; (ii) on va­ca­tion leave; or  (iii) un­able by rea­son of ill­ness or any oth­er rea­son to per­form the func­tions of the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice; or (b) the of­fice of the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice is or is like­ly to be­come va­cant, the Com­mis­sion shall se­lect the most se­nior of­fi­cer on the Or­der of Mer­it List and sub­mit that of­fi­cer’s name to the Pres­i­dent in ac­cor­dance with the pro­ce­dure set out in sec­tion 123 of the Con­sti­tu­tion.”

‘Have pa­tience’

Mean­while, in a brief in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Suzette Mar­tin is­sued a spe­cial ap­peal to the pub­lic, “To re­frain from sen­sa­tion­al­is­ing the mat­ter and spread­ing mis­in­for­ma­tion and spec­u­la­tion.”

She as­sured, “The TTPS will con­tin­ue the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in the most trans­par­ent, ac­count­able and im­par­tial man­ner as we have been do­ing all along.”

Mar­tin con­firmed the in­ves­ti­ga­tion con­tin­ues with of­fi­cials work­ing dili­gent­ly.

Ac­knowl­edg­ing the pub­lic’s in­ter­est in this mat­ter, the DCP said they would pro­vide up­dates where and when pos­si­ble, and which would not com­pro­mise the in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

The TTPS, in its state­ment, called for pa­tience from the pub­lic and urged cau­tion when it comes to spec­u­la­tion.

“The in­ves­ti­ga­tions are be­ing han­dled with the ut­most pro­fes­sion­al­ism, trans­paren­cy and im­par­tial­i­ty and jus­tice must be based on facts and due process, rather than as­sump­tions or bi­ased nar­ra­tives. Pre­ma­ture con­clu­sions and false in­for­ma­tion can cre­ate un­nec­es­sary ten­sion and hin­der the work of in­ves­ti­ga­tors.

“I give the as­sur­ance that the in­ves­ti­ga­tion, which has been guid­ed all along by the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions, is be­ing treat­ed with the ut­most se­ri­ous­ness and all find­ings will be based on cred­i­ble ev­i­dence. Let us all ex­er­cise re­spon­si­bil­i­ty by al­low­ing the in­ves­ti­ga­tion to un­fold with­out in­ter­fer­ence, as I call on every­one to up­hold fair­ness, trust the le­gal sys­tem, and re­frain from sen­sa­tion­al­is­ing the case. Let us await the facts, be­fore form­ing opin­ions.”

‘Erod­ing con­fi­dence’

Mean­while, the As­so­ci­a­tion of Cen­tral Le­gal Prac­ti­tion­ers (ACLP) through its chair­man, at­tor­ney Kiel Tak­lals­ingh has ex­pressed con­cern over the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the CoP.

De­mand­ing ac­count­abil­i­ty, the ACLP said it was deeply con­cerned as, “This im­broglio will in­evitably erode pub­lic con­fi­dence in that of­fice.”

The ACLP said, “The con­duct of the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice should be re­viewed to de­ter­mine whether due process was ob­served and re­mained free from bias or un­fair­ness, there­by up­hold­ing the in­sti­tu­tion­al in­tegri­ty of the TTPS.”

—With re­port­ing by An­na-Lisa Paul