An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

The probe in­to Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher in­ten­si­fied yes­ter­day as in­ves­ti­ga­tors re­turned to the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) Roger Gas­pard, SC, for ad­vice.

This fol­lows the Jan­u­ary 30 ar­rest of Hare­wood-Christo­pher at her of­fice in con­nec­tion with the im­por­ta­tion of two sniper ri­fles, and her sub­se­quent sus­pen­sion by the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PolSC).

Se­nior Coun­sel Pamela El­der, rep­re­sent­ing the com­mis­sion­er, vowed to chal­lenge the ac­tions, de­mand­ing a re­ver­sal of the sus­pen­sion.

Gas­pard had ad­vised the po­lice on Sat­ur­day to gath­er more in­for­ma­tion be­fore re­turn­ing to him.

In a brief state­ment to Guardian Me­dia around 4.15 pm yes­ter­day, Gas­pard con­firmed, “In­ves­ti­ga­tors re­turned to me to­day to dis­cuss an is­sue and the in­ves­ti­ga­tion is con­tin­u­ing.”

He said he could on­ly ad­vise the po­lice, but did not add any­thing fur­ther on the mat­ter.

Hare­wood-Christo­pher was ar­rest­ed and de­tained in her of­fice at the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing, Port-of-Spain.

She was lat­er ad­vised via let­ter dat­ed Jan­u­ary 31, by chair­man of the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PolSC) Dr Wen­dell Wal­lace that she would have to cease du­ties as the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (CoP) un­til fur­ther no­tice.

El­der had giv­en the PolSC un­til 2 pm yes­ter­day to re­scind Hare­wood-Christo­pher’s sus­pen­sion and to with­draw its let­ter to Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo sug­gest­ing that Hare­wood-Christo­pher be re­moved from her du­ty as top cop.

The PolSC re­port­ed­ly ac­knowl­edged re­ceipt of the pre-ac­tion pro­to­col let­ter that was despatched by El­der on Feb­ru­ary 3.

Guardian Me­dia con­firmed from se­nior po­lice of­fi­cials that lead in­ves­ti­ga­tor, Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (DCP), In­tel­li­gence and In­ves­ti­ga­tions, Suzette Mar­tin had spent a great part of yes­ter­day ob­tain­ing ad­di­tion­al in­for­ma­tion re­quest­ed by the PolSC.

For­mer di­rec­tor of the Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency (SSA) re­tired Ma­jor Roger Best was al­so ar­rest­ed in con­nec­tion with the on­go­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tion and re­leased on Sat­ur­day.