Police association backs CoP over firings of 17 officers

An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

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The T&T Po­lice Ser­vice So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion (TTPSS­WA) has come out in sup­port of the de­ci­sion by the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (CoP) to fire 17 po­lice of­fi­cers.

Hav­ing re­mained mum on the is­sue for the past two days fol­low­ing the an­nounce­ment by CoP Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro on Ju­ly 2, the TTPSS­WA pres­i­dent, ASP Ish­mael Pitt said, “We sup­port the Com­mis­sion­er once he acts in align­ment with the laws of T&T and the prin­ci­ples of nat­ur­al jus­tice pol­i­cy and pro­ce­dure.”

While he de­clined to say what in­for­ma­tion the TTPSS­WA was in pos­ses­sion of, Pitt agreed, “From all in­di­ca­tions, all those pa­ra­me­ters were met.”

He went on, “It is the con­sti­tu­tion­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of the Com­mis­sion­er to man­age the TTPS, and that means dis­ci­pline. It means ac­count­abil­i­ty. It means hir­ing and fir­ing.”

Pitt said that ac­count­abil­i­ty must pre­serve the im­age of the TTPS, whilst si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly re­in­forc­ing the per­cep­tion by so­ci­ety which it so des­per­ate­ly de­mands of the or­gan­i­sa­tion.

Sim­ply put, “We have no is­sues again, once it is that de­ci­sions are made in align­ment with the laws of T&T.”

Re­veal­ing that they had not been con­sult­ed or in­formed of this par­tic­u­lar de­ci­sion pri­or to Thurs­day’s an­nounce­ment, Pitt said, “No.”

While Gue­var­ro is known for con­sult­ing the TTPSS­WA reg­u­lar­ly in an open and free man­ner at times, Pitt agreed, “The Com­mis­sion­er is the per­son ac­count­able for the man­age­ment of the or­gan­i­sa­tion.”

“We are sat­is­fied thus far the de­ci­sions made are in keep­ing with his role and re­spon­si­bil­i­ties, and for that rea­son, it doesn’t mean to say that every de­ci­sion or any de­ci­sion at all should war­rant a dis­cus­sion with us.”

He said while the As­so­ci­a­tion ap­pre­ci­ates the dis­cus­sions, they have to ac­cept that de­ci­sions in the ab­sence of such con­ver­sa­tions meant they had to ap­pre­ci­ate it was a good one.

“If it’s not, then we will treat with it as it de­vel­ops,” Pitt added.

Stand­ing in re­spect of Gue­var­ro as head of the TTPS, the As­so­ci­a­tion head said the rea­sons be­hind the fir­ings ranged from “very, very se­ri­ous mat­ters to is­sues that some may deem triv­ial, but notwith­stand­ing they are se­ri­ous breach­es in terms of dis­ci­pline.”

He di­rect­ed fur­ther ques­tions re­gard­ing the in­frac­tions to the TTPS.

Pitt had his own warn­ing to po­lice of­fi­cers: “In keep­ing with the di­rec­tion of the or­gan­i­sa­tion and the fact that the TTPS is go­ing to­wards that lev­el of mod­erni­sa­tion and re­build­ing trust and con­fi­dence, there is no place for rogue of­fi­cers.”

“There is no place for cor­rupt of­fi­cers. There is no place for per­sons who run afoul of the law.”

Re­in­forc­ing the re­spon­si­bil­i­ties of po­lice of­fi­cers, which is to de­tect crimes and oth­er in­frac­tions of the law, Pitt re­mind­ed, “Our of­fi­cers are go­ing to do that re­gard­less of whether it hap­pens ex­ter­nal to the or­gan­i­sa­tion or with­in the or­gan­i­sa­tion.”

He added his voice to Gue­var­ro’s. He called on per­sons to “re­con­sid­er” go­ing in that di­rec­tion.

Reaf­firm­ing their sup­port for of­fi­cers who could find them­selves fac­ing al­le­ga­tions of im­pro­pri­ety and mis­be­hav­iour, Pitt was adamant, “We are go­ing to sup­port our of­fi­cers.”

But he stressed that once con­vic­tions were se­cured and per­sons are found guilty, this would be where “the buck stops.”

In a press re­lease on Thurs­day, Gue­var­ro an­nounced the re­vo­ca­tion of the ap­point­ments of 17 po­lice of­fi­cers but did not out­line what had led to the de­ci­sion.

In a voice note on Ju­ly 3, he re­mind­ed per­sons of the fun­da­men­tal prin­ci­ple that with­in the TTPS and un­der his lead­er­ship, there would be no sa­cred cows.

He stat­ed, “Po­lice of­fi­cers are en­trust­ed with ex­tra­or­di­nary pow­ers and with that trust comes the du­ty to up­hold in­tegri­ty, dis­ci­pline and ser­vice to the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

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

“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.”

In­sist­ing the TTPS re­mained com­mit­ted to trans­paren­cy, ac­count­abil­i­ty and the high­est ideals of pub­lic ser­vice, Gue­var­ro vowed to con­tin­ue strength­en­ing in­sti­tu­tion­al in­tegri­ty, re­in­forc­ing pub­lic trust, and en­sur­ing that every of­fi­cer re­mem­bers their du­ty is to serve with­out fear or favour.

He pledged, “As we ad­vance our ze­ro tol­er­ance ap­proach, the pub­lic will see a re­newed and res­olute re­sponse to crime.”

“My of­fi­cers will pur­sue crim­i­nals wher­ev­er they are found and in this ser­vice all are equal be­fore the law. Re­mem­ber that my of­fi­cers will be hunt­ing all crim­i­nals and in so do­ing it will be big gouti, small gouti, same shot. In this ser­vice all are equal be­fore the law and all are ac­count­able to the peo­ple.”