A former head of the Police Service Commission (PSC) Ramesh Deosaran wants the Government to make public the cabinet note which has changed the rules for appointment of a commissioner of police.
Deosaran told the GML Enterprise Desk that “if it’s a mere administrative change they want to make to the legal notice, which has to do with the appointment criteria for hiring a commissioner and the manner in which the post is advertised by the Director of Personnel Administration, then it could be easily done.”
However, he said, it was a different matter if they intended to make constitutional changes with regards to the powers of the police commissioner.
He said, it was only “if the Government publishes the note for public comment that the public will know how far the extent of the changes would go and whether it would need a special majority.”
But Communications Minister Maxie Cuffie explained that there was no need for constitutional change, since it was simply a case where Cabinet has approved an order to change the process for the appointment of a CoP, “so that where before we had to advertise with an international firm, a local firm will now handle the advertisement for the post on behalf of the Police Service Commission.”
Cuffie said, “We are not changing the law but the process.”
The change would still be brought to the Parliament, he said, but once it was gazetted it would become law. Currently, the advertisement for a commissioner says locals, regional and international professionals can apply. That will now have to be re-defined to say only applicants from T&T will be considered. Cuffie said nationals living abroad could apply.
Deosaran raised concerns about whether the cabinet note sought to fulfil the government’s stated intention to establish an Inspectorate of Police as well as a Police Management Board. If that were the case, he said, then it would mean that there would have to be constitutional change since the two bodies would interfere with the role of the police commissioner and the Police Service Commission.
He said the wisest thing to do at this stage was to publish the note which would “have to come to Cabinet in any case, because we do not want to do something which will lead to complexities and a tangled web where they are trying to change what they already have. We cannot make the mistakes of the past.”
Asked what he felt was the best criteria for the selection of a CoP, Deosaran said, “competence, integrity, experience and a sound academic as well as professional background.”
He said every effort must be made to ensure that those conducting the interviews “are quite capable and knowledgeable. All we can hope is that the interview process is vigilant and meticulous.”
President of the Police Service Social and Welfare Association Anand Ramesar says the association welcomes the opening up of the system. He said, “We have tried the methodology of going international and that failed. When we met with the Minister of National Security Edmund Dillon we indicated we wanted a local person. It’s a decision we are on board with.”
Ramesar said there were a lot of people with capabilities and the association was looking forward to “fresh ideas and a paradigm shift.”
But he said the process of selection must be “free and fair and free from manipulation, so that the person who becomes commissioner will be selected on merit.”
In August 2014, Deosaran resigned as chairman of the PSC, citing frustration over the failure of the government to amend the cumbersome process to appoint a CoP.
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The post of commissioner of police has been vacant since 2012 when the then commissioner Dwayne Gibbs, a Canadian, resigned two years after assuming office.
Gibbs had been hailed as a face of change for the local police service who introduced a 21st century policing initiative which he said would improve the level of policing in the country.
In his first year in office the murder rate fell by just under 30 per cent, but by 2012 he had lost the confidence of key people and the PSC under Deosaran, in evaluating the then commissioner, found his leadership skills “terribly lacking” and his level of enthusiasm to be “far from satisfactory.”
Gibbs got a “fair” grade along with his deputy Jack Ewatski, another Canadian. By July of 2012 both men were heading back to Canada with golden handshakes having each received ex-gratia payments of just over $2 million.
It would be the man who got a “satisfactory” grade from the PSC, Stephen Williams, then a deputy commissioner of police, who would then assume the role of acting Police Commissioner. It is a post which he still holds three years later.
Williams will have to apply for the job of commissioner of police and be interviewed like any other applicant.