Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

To­bag­o­ni­ans have ex­pressed mixed views on the con­tro­ver­sy sur­round­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher.

While some be­lieve she was “set up” and view the sit­u­a­tion as un­fair, they al­so wel­come the po­ten­tial ap­point­ment of DCP Ju­nior Ben­jamin, a To­bag­on­ian, to act as head of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS).

Ben­jamin is one of two names put for­ward by the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion for par­lia­men­tary con­sid­er­a­tion to act as com­mis­sion­er while Hare­wood-Christo­pher is on sus­pen­sion, pend­ing the out­come of an in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

Those who Guardian Me­dia spoke with on the is­land said they hoped this change led to im­proved se­cu­ri­ty and safe­ty for To­ba­go. Ven­dor Dolton Joseph de­scribed the sit­u­a­tion as un­for­tu­nate.

“It’s the mid­dle of a State of Emer­gency, and we have a sit­u­a­tion like this. But let’s see where this goes. She has a right to de­fend her­self, just as the State has a right to bring a case if they have one.”

Joseph said he was not too con­cerned about Ben­jamin’s To­bag­on­ian roots, as long as he was ca­pa­ble. “The fact that he’s To­bag­on­ian or not doesn’t mat­ter much to me. What mat­ters is whether he is ca­pa­ble. He has been in charge of op­er­a­tions for quite a while, which is a good po­si­tion in the ser­vice. I’m hop­ing that if he does get the nod, his ex­pe­ri­ence and pro­fes­sion­al­ism will win out.”

An­oth­er man, who gave his name on­ly as Mor­ri­son, be­lieves the com­mis­sion­er was used and dis­card­ed. “I think they just used the woman for a while, and now that they’ve got­ten what they want­ed, they’re get­ting rid of her.” De­spite this, he is ea­ger to see what Ben­jamin will do for To­ba­go.

“I just hope he does the work he’s sup­posed to do—the right thing—so that peo­ple can con­sid­er him as the com­mis­sion­er,” he said. A Ma­son Hall res­i­dent who on­ly iden­ti­fied him­self as Kei­tho con­demned the way Hare­wood-Christo­pher was be­ing treat­ed.

“She was set up. She didn’t know what was hap­pen­ing. And if I could quote for­mer com­mis­sion­er of po­lice Gary Grif­fith, she was put in a po­si­tion she couldn’t han­dle.” He be­lieves the sit­u­a­tion is dri­ven by rank and favouritism.

Still, he hopes who­ev­er takes up the po­si­tion im­proves se­cu­ri­ty on the is­land. “Who­ev­er be­comes com­mis­sion­er of po­lice, I’m look­ing for­ward to see­ing bet­ter se­cu­ri­ty in To­ba­go be­cause crime is get­ting out of hand. Long ago, we had no crime, but as things de­vel­oped, things changed. They need to get a han­dle on this.”

Afisha Als of Bon Ac­cord be­lieves this was a sign that Hare­wood-Christo­pher need­ed to be re­moved. “She didn’t make any kind of sense what­so­ev­er. We don’t see her any­where on the field. I pre­fer they bring back (for­mer com­mis­sion­er of po­lice) Gary Grif­fith. He made more sense to every­body.

“I want to see him im­prove the of­fi­cers be­cause, at the end of the day, they do their jobs, but they can’t do every­thing alone—they need sup­port.”

Scar­bor­ough res­i­dent Jhevon Jack­son de­scribed the sit­u­a­tion as un­fair. “It looks like they tried to ma­noeu­vre things and squeeze down on her. It’s not fair. She got the po­si­tion, and you can’t just take it away like that. They need­ed sol­id ev­i­dence—not just to con­vince the po­lice, but to con­vince us as To­bag­o­ni­ans—that she’s un­fit for of­fice.” How­ev­er, Jack­son was op­ti­mistic about Ben­jamin’s po­ten­tial ap­point­ment. “I want him to bring back To­ba­go to what it used to be. We want To­ba­go to be the par­adise it once was, and I can’t wait to see that. I can’t wait for him to step in and make things hap­pen.”