Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

For­mer po­lice com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith is de­scrib­ing the “con­tin­ued pro­mo­tion” of Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Suzette Mar­tin as un­ac­cept­able.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia at a Ro­tary Club of Port-of-Spain meet­ing at Good­will In­dus­tries, Fitzblack­man Dri­ve, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day, Grif­fith said the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice’s (TTPS) han­dling of the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to sus­pend­ed Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher has dis­cred­it­ed the of­fice.

Grif­fith took aim at DCP Mar­tin and her in­volve­ment in the on­go­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to Hare­wood-Christo­pher, de­spite al­le­ga­tions made about her own con­duct.

“Many of­fi­cers have not been pro­mot­ed based on them be­ing on a charge. How come Mark Her­nan­dez is on a charge but he couldn’t be pro­mot­ed? Suzette Mar­tin has been on a charge and has been pro­mot­ed. Then you have the sit­u­a­tion with Brent Thomas, how could a judge make a state­ment, the court has stat­ed that he is shocked these in­di­vid­u­als have not been in­ves­ti­gat­ed and should not even be on du­ty and we de­cid­ed to pun­ish the in­di­vid­ual by pro­mot­ing her to the DCP. This is un­be­liev­able,” Grif­fith said.

Re­spond­ing to a pub­lished re­port which claimed a se­nior of­fi­cer in­volved in the on­go­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to Hare­wood-Christo­pher had her­self been ac­cused of mis­han­dling two firearm-re­lat­ed in­ves­ti­ga­tions, act­ing Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (DCP), Op­er­a­tions, Curt Si­mon, on Mon­day said up­on see­ing it in black and white, he was aware and sat­is­fied that, “in my mind, that mat­ter was dealt with.”

How­ev­er, Grif­fith yes­ter­day said, “What we are see­ing right now in this sit­u­a­tion, this is not to cast as­per­sions on any­one, but you have DCP Si­mon vir­tu­al­ly clear­ing DCP Suzette Mar­tin from an in­ci­dent and the same DCP Mar­tin is the same per­son who in­ves­ti­gat­ed Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher and caused her to be re­moved that caused Si­mon to be el­e­vat­ed. So, you see what is hap­pen­ing here? It can be per­ceived as one hand try­ing to as­sist the oth­er to clap.”

On Mon­day, act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Ju­nior Ben­jamin said Mar­tin re­mained head of the In­ves­ti­ga­tions and In­tel­li­gence Unit and she was still the “point per­son” in re­la­tion to the probe in­to the sus­pend­ed CoP.

He added that the en­tire process has ex­posed the need for a trans­for­ma­tion in the TTPS.

“It is all based on lead­er­ship. When I took over as com­mis­sion­er of po­lice, pub­lic con­fi­dence in the same po­lice ser­vice was 14 per cent, three years lat­er it was 59 per cent (with) the same of­fi­cers, three years lat­er it is less than eight per cent, the same po­lice of­fi­cers, so it is not the po­lice of­fi­cers, it is the lead­er­ship. The whole thing has to be re­vamped, there must be a ma­jor over­haul of the Po­lice Ser­vice,” Grif­fith said.

Hare­wood-Christo­pher was sus­pend­ed on Jan­u­ary 31, af­ter she was ar­rest­ed a day ear­li­er as the po­lice in­ves­ti­gat­ed the pro­cure­ment of two sniper ri­fles for the Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency (SSA). Af­ter her ar­rest, Hare­wood-Christo­pher spent three days in po­lice cus­tody and was re­leased with­out charge on Feb­ru­ary 1.