Derek Achong

Two Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice (SRP) of­fi­cers have lost their law­suit over be­ing blocked from join­ing the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) be­cause of their vis­i­ble tat­toos. 

De­liv­er­ing a judge­ment late last month, High Court Judge Mar­garet Mo­hammed dis­missed the ju­di­cial re­view and con­sti­tu­tion­al claim brought by SRPs Givon Quam­i­na and Michael Mar­cano.  

In the law­suit, the duo was claim­ing that their con­sti­tu­tion­al rights were breached when their re­peat­ed ap­pli­ca­tions to be­come TTPS trainees were re­fused be­tween 2013 and 2019. 

They claimed that their failed ap­pli­ca­tions were based on a TTPS Body Art and Mod­i­fi­ca­tion Pol­i­cy pub­lished in Ju­ly 2020. 

In de­cid­ing the case, Jus­tice Mo­hammed ruled that the TTPS did not have to an­swer the duo’s case, as they claimed that they were blanked based on a pol­i­cy that was not in ex­is­tence at the time they ap­plied and were no­ti­fied of their un­suc­cess­ful ap­pli­ca­tions. 

While Jus­tice Mo­hammed or­dered the duo to pay the le­gal costs the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al in­curred for de­fend­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al as­pect of the law­suit, she or­dered the duo and the TTPS to bear their own le­gal costs for the ju­di­cial re­view as­pect of the case, as she not­ed that the duo should have with­drawn it and the TTPS should have dis­closed the pol­i­cy at an ear­li­er stage. 

Ac­cord­ing to the ev­i­dence in the case, Quam­i­na, who has been an SRP since 2014, claimed that he at­tempt­ed to join the TTPS on sev­er­al oc­ca­sions, in­clud­ing in 2019, and was de­nied ac­cep­tance based on the tat­too on his up­per right arm, which de­picts a dol­lar sign, a star and his name. 

Mar­cano be­came an SRP in 2013 and had a tat­too on his up­per right shoul­der. He claimed that af­ter his ap­pli­ca­tion was re­fused, he un­der­went laser re­moval surgery. He claimed that al­though the tat­too was re­moved, he was again blanked as a mark re­mained on the area. 

Through the law­suit, the duo was seek­ing an or­der quash­ing the pol­i­cy and a de­c­la­ra­tion that it does not pre­clude him from join­ing the TTPS.

They were al­so seek­ing a de­c­la­ra­tion that Mar­cano’s con­sti­tu­tion­al rights were in­fringed, as well as com­pen­sa­tion for the salary in­crease he would have re­ceived if he was al­lowed to join the ser­vice in one of his nu­mer­ous at­tempts. 

The duo was rep­re­sent­ed by Anand Ram­lo­gan, SC, Renu­ka Ramb­ha­jan, Jayan­ti Lutch­me­di­al, Cheyenne Lu­go, Natasha Bis­ram and Alana Ram­baran.

The TTPS was rep­re­sent­ed Adi­ta Ram­du­lar, Chan­tal Fournil­li­er, and Qia Grosvenor. 

The Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al was rep­re­sent­ed by Niquelle Nel­son-Granville, Vic­to­ria Ar­mor­er, Lau­ra Per­sad, Nisa Sim­mons, Ja­nine Joseph and Sara Mus­lim.