Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley on Thurs­day high­light­ed an is­sue the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice has been bat­tling with for quite some time — the cost­ly mis­use and de­struc­tion of po­lice ve­hi­cles by po­lice of­fi­cers, who of­ten use the as­signed ve­hi­cles for per­son­al use and gain.

The PM’s take on the is­sue was prompt­ed by a TTPS re­quest for ap­proval to pur­chase 80 sport util­i­ty ve­hi­cles (SU­Vs) val­ued at $22 mil­lion.

The Prime Min­is­ter, quite right­ly, ques­tioned the need for such ve­hi­cles, ques­tioned the need for this par­tic­u­lar make of ve­hi­cles, par­tic­u­lar­ly when some po­lice of­fi­cers have no­to­ri­ous­ly shown lit­tle re­gard for their val­ue and care with bla­tant mis­use of such equip­ment.

Just days ear­li­er, Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith ex­pressed his own con­cerns on the is­sue and pro­posed a rem­e­dy of his own, sug­gest­ing he in­tend­ed to ap­proach At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Faris Al-Rawi with an idea to out­fit both marked and un­marked ve­hi­cles with per­son­alised li­cense plates, which will be out­fit­ted with a mi­crochip linked to a glob­al po­si­tion­ing sys­tem (GPS).

Com­mis­sion­er Grif­fith said this would pre­vent of­fi­cers joyrid­ing around with State re­sources and more im­por­tant­ly, give them the abil­i­ty to track down those ve­hi­cles be­ing used on oth­er ac­tiv­i­ties un­re­lat­ed to their state du­ties.

This was not the first time the Com­mis­sion­er has spo­ken out pub­licly about the mis­use of po­lice ve­hi­cles and the re­cal­ci­trant be­hav­iour of some po­lice of­fi­cers.

In April, Com­mis­sion­er Grif­fith said rec­om­mend to the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty that amend­ments be made to the State Li­a­bil­i­ty and Pro­ceed­ing Act for po­lice of­fi­cers to pay out of their own pock­ets, when they dam­age a ve­hi­cle or if their ac­tions cost the ser­vice or State.

It is high time er­rant and rogue po­lice of­fi­cers are held ac­count­able for their mis­con­duct and mis­be­hav­iour.

In­deed, the Prime Min­is­ter’s com­ments was al­so out of a con­cern about the lev­el of in­dis­ci­pline among of­fi­cers and he spoke to the need for train­ing.

Dr Row­ley is head of the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil and his ac­knowl­edge­ment of the be­hav­iour and re­cal­ci­trance of a few of­fi­cers, serves to bol­ster the con­cerns of Com­mis­sion­er Grif­fith. But now, it must move from words to en­force­able rules and reg­u­la­tions.

For far too long there have been some of­fi­cers who, by their ac­tions, have brought the TTPS in­to dis­re­pute. Of­ten, how­ev­er, it ap­pears that the process to dis­ci­pline and even ex­pel them from the ser­vice takes far too long, dur­ing which time they are on paid sus­pen­sion, again at cost to tax­pay­ers.

It can­not con­tin­ue like this.

Dr Row­ley re­mind­ed the coun­try that there was a time when be­com­ing a po­lice of­fi­cer was re­gard­ed as a no­ble pro­fes­sion that young men and women could as­pire to. Po­lice of­fi­cers were seen as per­sons of au­thor­i­ty, who com­mand­ed re­spect and ad­mi­ra­tion.

How far we have come from that. Po­lice who crash ve­hi­cles, abuse their au­thor­i­ty, break the law and fail to per­form their du­ties should be swift­ly dis­ci­plined and made to pay for their ac­tions.

The pro­pos­als by Com­mis­sion­er Grif­fith must be giv­en due con­sid­er­a­tion. If there is need to fur­ther strength­en his sug­ges­tions, then that too must be done with the sup­port of the Gov­ern­ment. Tax­pay­ers should not have to con­tin­ue foot­ing the bills of a re­cal­ci­trant mi­nor­i­ty. The prob­lem must be dealt with head-on.