Yet an­oth­er snag in the se­lec­tion of a Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice yes­ter­day af­ter an ap­pli­cant for the post act­ing Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent of Po­lice Anand Rame­sar se­cured an in­junc­tion halt­ing the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PSC) from com­plet­ing its re­cruit­ment.

This is the lat­est twist in a se­lec­tion that has un­for­tu­nate­ly been mired in con­tro­ver­sy and pub­lic in­trigue.

The gov­ern­ment brought con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ments to the Par­lia­ment, which were meant to stream­line the process with the re­quire­ments for a re­cruit­ment firm to be hired to short-list can­di­dates and in­ter­na­tion­al ad­ver­tise­ment of the po­si­tion be­ing re­moved.

But the Op­po­si­tion Leader claimed that the new pro­ce­dure reeked of po­lit­i­cal in­ter­fer­ence and seemed to be an at­tempt to en­sure that Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith would not be se­lect­ed for a sec­ond term.

The Op­po­si­tion sought to an­nul the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (CoP) and Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (DCP) (Se­lec­tion Process) Or­der, 2021 in the Sen­ate with­out suc­cess.

On the heels of this, there was some dis­qui­et about the lev­el of trans­paren­cy by the PSC and the per­ceived tar­di­ness in which the en­tire process com­menced.

The ad­ver­tised dead­line for the post of Com­mis­sion­er was Ju­ly 20, 2021.

As the re­cruit­ment wheels turned, Grif­fith’s tenure at the helm of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice ex­pired on Au­gust 17 and he was qui­et­ly ap­point­ed to act with no no­tice from the PSC to the pub­lic.

Much to the cha­grin of the pub­lic, Grif­fith was al­lowed to pro­ceed on leave and deputy Com­mis­sion­er Mc­Don­ald Ja­cob was as­signed to act. Still, there was a deaf­en­ing si­lence from the PSC.

These lat­est turn of events have placed the se­lec­tion of a Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice in a po­si­tion of chaos that this coun­try be­lieved it had emerged from and was firm­ly plant­ed in the past af­ter the ini­tial se­lec­tion of Grif­fith.

Since the de­par­ture of for­mer Com­mis­sion­er Trevor Paul in 2007, the se­lec­tion of a top CoP has be­come a con­tentious is­sue with a slew of se­nior po­lice and law en­force­ment of­fi­cials lead­ing the TTPS. Pri­or to Grif­fith, Stephen Williams act­ed as Com­mis­sion­er for al­most a decade.

This in ef­fect robbed the ser­vice of sta­bil­i­ty and no doubt would have im­pact­ed its abil­i­ty to ef­fec­tive­ly deal with crime and gang ac­tiv­i­ty over the years.

It may be the pre­rog­a­tive of PSC chair­woman Bliss Seep­er­sad and her pan­el to shy away from me­dia at­ten­tion and lime­light, but in an era where the pop­u­la­tion de­mands ac­count­abil­i­ty and trans­paren­cy, the PSC can ill af­ford to car­ry out its op­er­a­tions with such a thick cloak of se­cre­cy.

While the con­cerns of act­ing Snr Supt Rame­sar will be ful­ly ven­ti­lat­ed and ad­ju­di­cat­ed in court, the Com­mis­sion should take a step back and as­sess the en­tire course of events of the last few months and ask its self, whether it has been ef­fec­tive in car­ry­ing out its man­date and its biggest task of se­lect­ing a Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, so ur­gent­ly re­quired to en­sure the safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty of the coun­try.

The PSC’s han­dling of the se­lec­tion of a top cop has left much to be de­sired. Grif­fith was ap­point­ed to act when his sub­stan­tive ap­point­ment came to its nat­ur­al con­clu­sion three years af­ter he took of­fice. Grif­fith as act­ing top cop was then giv­en the clear­ance to pro­ceed on leave, Mc­Don­ald Ja­cob was ap­point­ed to act in his ab­sence and yet the si­lence on the PSC on these lat­est moves has been deaf­en­ing.

The PSC re­ports to the pres­i­dent. It is on­ly Madame Pres­i­dent who can in­ter­vene and tell the Com­mis­sion pri­vate­ly to awake from its slum­ber and let the coun­try know that it has the peo­ple’s in­ter­est at heart es­pe­cial­ly giv­en the fright­en­ing spate of killings tak­ing place.