Se­nior law en­force­ment of­fi­cers vy­ing for the op­por­tu­ni­ty to lead the Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) are hop­ing to re­store a sense of se­cu­ri­ty across the na­tion. How­ev­er, one be­lieves the process of se­lect­ing a com­mis­sion­er of po­lice should be trans­par­ent through­out with each can­di­date be­ing aware of their scores along the way.

Among the con­tenders are for­mer Po­lice So­cial Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent, ACP Anand Rame­sar, and Lt Colonel Shel­don Ra­manan of the T&T De­fence Force.

“That per­son should bear the full re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the pre­ven­tion of crime and the safe­ty of cit­i­zens in the coun­try. For me, the safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty of our cit­i­zens are non-ne­go­tiable. As a can­di­date, I pledge un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to in­tegri­ty and restor­ing law and or­der to work. Un­der my lead­er­ship, Trinidad and To­ba­go will re­claim this na­tion from the scourge of vi­o­lence and crim­i­nal be­hav­iour,” Rame­sar said.

Last month, the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PolSC) in­ter­viewed ten po­lice of­fi­cers and one De­fence Force (TTDF) of­fi­cer for the com­mis­sion­er post, in­cor­po­rat­ing poly­graph tests and me­dia role-play ex­er­cis­es. The can­di­dates in­clud­ed Act­ing Com­mis­sion­er Ju­nior Ben­jamin, DCP Suzette Mar­tin, Ag DCP Curt Si­mon, ACP Wayne Mys­tar, Snr Supt Sub­has Ramkhelawan, Snr Supt Clint Arthur, Ag Supt Gue­var­ro, for­mer ACP Joseph Chan­dol, and Lt Colonel Shel­don Ra­manan of the TTDF.

The cur­rent Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher is on sus­pen­sion af­ter be­ing ar­rest­ed and then re­leased with­out charge af­ter be­ing ques­tioned about the ac­qui­si­tion of guns by the SSA.

A court mat­ter re­gard­ing her sus­pen­sion is ex­pect­ed to be heard to­day.

Her con­tract comes to an end in May.

But who­ev­er is se­lect­ed as the next com­mis­sion­er will face a for­mi­da­ble chal­lenge. As of 31 De­cem­ber 2024, the TTPS re­port­ed a mur­der de­tec­tion rate of just 12 per cent—well be­low the 30 per cent tar­get. With 615 mur­ders record­ed, 2024 was the dead­liest year in Trinidad and To­ba­go’s his­to­ry, eclips­ing the pre­vi­ous record of 605 in 2022.

Rame­sar, an at­tor­ney-at-law, cer­ti­fied me­di­a­tor, and for­mer pres­i­dent of the Caribbean Fed­er­a­tion of Po­lice Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tions said ef­fec­tive use of ex­ist­ing re­sources—hu­man, tech­no­log­i­cal, and fi­nan­cial—is crit­i­cal to achiev­ing suc­cess.

“When ex­am­in­ing the ex­tent of al­lo­cat­ed re­sources—hu­man, tech­no­log­i­cal ca­pac­i­ty and hard­ware, and fi­nances—a CoP must un­der­stand this and, in re­turn, de­liv­er sus­tain­able strate­gies,” he said.

It is the third time he has ap­plied to be com­mis­sion­er of po­lice.

He added that re­liance on ex­tra­or­di­nary mea­sures such as states of emer­gency re­flects deep­er in­sti­tu­tion­al short­com­ings.

Though grate­ful for be­ing part of the se­lec­tion process, Rame­sar voiced con­cern over trans­paren­cy. He said can­di­dates should have been kept in­formed of their scores through­out, rather than find­ing out on­ly af­ter a com­mis­sion­er is cho­sen.

“In any event, I would pre­fer a process that stops short of the num­ber one can­di­date go­ing to Par­lia­ment and that the per­son se­lect­ed should be gauged strict­ly on the as­sess­ment’s out­come.”

Mean­while, Ra­manan said he has al­ways as­pired to serve his coun­try. In­spired by his fa­ther, a for­mer po­lice of­fi­cer, and ear­ly in­volve­ment in the Cub Scouts, pub­lic ser­vice is, he said, “in my DNA.”

“Com­ing from a fam­i­ly of pub­lic ser­vants, I un­der­stand the weight of this re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. As John F Kennedy said, ‘Ask not what your coun­try can do for you —ask what you can do for your coun­try.’”

Ra­manan be­lieves ad­dress­ing cor­rup­tion with­in the TTPS is es­sen­tial to restor­ing pub­lic trust. If ap­point­ed, he pro­pos­es an in­de­pen­dent in­ter­nal af­fairs unit, sim­i­lar to the UK’s IPCC, and se­cure chan­nels for of­fi­cers to re­port mis­con­duct—sup­port­ed by whistle­blow­er pro­tec­tion laws.

 He said tech­nol­o­gy is cru­cial to crime pre­ven­tion.

“I will im­ple­ment da­ta-dri­ven strate­gies to in­form de­ci­sions, op­ti­mise re­sources, and build a proac­tive force.”

He said digi­tis­ing the TTPS, is high on his agen­da and will im­prove trans­paren­cy, ac­count­abil­i­ty, and the speed and ac­cu­ra­cy of pros­e­cu­tions.