Jensen La Vende

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher has been re­in­stat­ed as the sub­stan­tive head of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) and is now await­ing the con­fir­ma­tion let­ter from the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PolSC).

News of the de­ci­sion came from PolSC’s at­tor­ney Se­nior Coun­sel Deb­o­rah Peake dur­ing the fi­nal court hear­ing where High Court Judge Christo­pher Sieuc­hand ruled against the top cop.

To­day’s hear­ing was to de­ter­mine whether the sus­pen­sion of Hare­wood-Christo­pher was il­le­gal. Sieuc­hand ruled that it was law­ful, in the pub­lic in­ter­est and was not against the laws of nat­ur­al jus­tice.

While Hare­wood-Christo­pher’s at­tor­ney Pamela El­der SC sought clar­i­fi­ca­tion on whether the lift­ing of the sus­pen­sion was im­me­di­ate, Peake ad­vised that it will be best to wait for the let­ter of con­fir­ma­tion.

With Hare­wood-Christo­pher’s im­mi­nent re­turn, act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Ju­nior Ben­jamin will re­vert to his sub­stan­tive po­si­tion as Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice. He was due to meet with new Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der fol­low­ing the UNC’s vic­to­ry two weeks ago.

The lift­ing of the sus­pen­sion means that the top cop will have three days in of­fice be­fore her birth­day on Thurs­day co­in­cid­ing with the end of her CoP’s con­tract.

Both the State and the PolSC are yet to say if she will get a third and fi­nal ex­ten­sion.