After 17 firings, Guevarro warns rogue officers

Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro has warned that po­lice of­fi­cers who en­gage in crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty will be re­moved from the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice, a day af­ter the TTPS an­nounced the re­vo­ca­tion of the ap­point­ments of 17 of­fi­cers.

In a voice mes­sage is­sued to­day, Gue­var­ro said the ac­tion un­der­scored a fun­da­men­tal prin­ci­ple of the or­gan­i­sa­tion.

“There are no sa­cred cows,” he said.

He said po­lice of­fi­cers are en­trust­ed with ex­tra­or­di­nary pow­ers and have a du­ty to up­hold in­tegri­ty, dis­ci­pline and ser­vice to the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“When that oath is bro­ken, the con­se­quences will be clear, de­ci­sive, and im­par­tial.”

The Com­mis­sion­er warned that any of­fi­cer who abus­es the pub­lic’s trust would face the full force of the law.

“Let it be a warn­ing that any of­fi­cer who wears this uni­form and en­gages in crim­i­nal­i­ty will face the full weight of law­ful ac­tion. I will take every step nec­es­sary to re­move you from this or­gan­i­sa­tion,” he said.

Yes­ter­day, the TTPS an­nounced that the ap­point­ments of 17 po­lice of­fi­cers had been re­voked by the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice. The Ser­vice said the no­tice was is­sued for pub­lic in­for­ma­tion and record in ac­cor­dance with the Com­mis­sion­er’s ad­min­is­tra­tive di­rec­tions.

Gue­var­ro said the TTPS re­mains com­mit­ted to trans­paren­cy, ac­count­abil­i­ty and the high­est ideals of pub­lic ser­vice.

He said the Ser­vice would con­tin­ue strength­en­ing in­sti­tu­tion­al in­tegri­ty, re­in­forc­ing pub­lic trust and en­sur­ing every of­fi­cer re­mem­bers that their du­ty is to serve “with­out fear or favour”.

The Com­mis­sion­er al­so reaf­firmed the TTPS’ ze­ro tol­er­ance ap­proach to crime, say­ing the pub­lic would see “a re­newed and res­olute re­sponse” from of­fi­cers.

“My of­fi­cers will pur­sue crim­i­nals wher­ev­er they are found,” he said.

Re­it­er­at­ing that every­one is equal be­fore the law, Gue­var­ro added: “Re­mem­ber, that my of­fi­cers will be hunt­ing all crim­i­nals. And in so do­ing, it will be big goody, small goody, same shot. In this ser­vice, all are equal be­fore the law, and all are ac­count­able to the peo­ple.”