Former National Security minister Gary Griffith may likely be seeking the post of Commissioner of Police, along with Police Service Social and Welfare Association secretary Anand Ramesar, acting CoP Stephen Williams and several other police “jefes” when the application process gets going.
“I’m giving active consideration to applying for this post, as I’ve been inundated with calls by citizens to do so,” Griffith said, not ruling out an application. He declined to identify those who have urged him to apply.
T&T has been without a substantive police commissioner since 2012 after Canadians Dwayne Gibbs and Jack Ewatski resigned as commissioner and deputy commissioner, respectively, after a two-year stint.
Williams had been acting in the post since Gibbs left and was approved to continue acting six times by the Police Service Commission. Williams is now on three months’ leave, returning in November. The T&T Sunday Guardian confirmed Williams will be applying for the CoP post.
Currently acting as CoP is Commissioner Harold Phillips who is tipped as a contender also.
While the application process is worked out, Griffith confirmed to the Guardian a few weeks ago that he was eyeing the post. A few days ago, he spoke about it:
“Throughout my entire adult life I’ve dedicated my time, energy and efforts toward service to country. Starting with being in the military, to service as National Security advisor, to service as National Security minister. I think this position could be yet another avenue to continue in service to this country. My sole intention is to cause positive change and make this a better country for us all.
“This sums up the consideration currently being given to the many calls from within the national community for me to actively consider service to country in the capacity of commissioner. Contrary to what may be construed that service in this capacity must come from within the rank and file of the Police Service, the revised requirements are clear in the identification of requirements, which include being a TT citizen and having the qualification and necessary experience to support same.”
Griffith said a current example (not in T&T) of a non-serving police officer appointed to such a job was that of Bill Bratton, who was appointed as New York Police Department commissioner.
“My service in the military, coupled with my academic and management-based undertakings provided the required baseline support for all my previous roles, and certainly provides same should I consider this role. If I do decide to pursue this, it would not be the first in the Caribbean, as a previous member of the Jamaican Defence Force was that nation’s police commissioner until 2009.
“This is not a time for administrators and pen pushers at the helm, but someone with the ability to understand what is needed on the ground and make sound operational and tactical policies that would totally revamp the Police Service, both in terms of image and actual results.”
“The difference in my style as minister of National Security to others was because of just that—my direction of putting focus on what is known as situational crime prevention, which involves stringent policing, operational policies, hard targeting, providing deterrents, ensuring a rapid response to distress calls, high visibility and getting the pubic to start trusting and buying into the fact that by working with the police, it becomes an unbeatable combination against criminal elements.
“At times, it may have even meant that I was acting more like a police commissioner than a security minister, but these actions caused positive results, whereby 2014 saw the lowest number of serious crimes in over 30 years, and the nation experienced the highest visibility and most powerful deterrents seen via police presence all over the country. This was based on systems implemented to ensure that Response Units and patrols were monitored and performance measured and made accountable.”
Griffith said, several of the operational policies that caused this have been shelved.
“As a previous member of the Protective Services/Defence Force, I know the importance of also fighting to support your troops, which I did when as security advisor, recommending the $1,000 monthly allowance for all personnel, including the police, to providing for the first time a special allowance for them whilst on duty on Carnival, which ensured for the first time an almost 100 per cent turnout.
“I also ensured they acquired proper training via establishment of the National Security Training Academy, and looked after their well-being, via recommending the allocation for families of officers killed in the line of duty.”
Griffith said: “But you must also be bold enough to do what is required to fire the few who embarrass the Force, via having them fired and not the usual song-and-dance of officers just being re-assigned when they embarrass the Force.”
In February 2015, former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar had asked the President to revoke the appointments of Griffith and attorney general Anand Ramlogan and called for the resignation of the Director of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) David West, for their roles in witness-tampering investigations ordered then by acting CoP Williams.
West claimed Ramlogan asked him to withdraw his witness statement in a defamation case brought by Ramlogan against then Opposition leader Keith Rowley in exchange for the PCA post. Griffith was named as a volunteer witness in the issue.
Persad-Bissessar said that she had asked for and received Ramlogan’s resignation. However, she had also asked Griffith for his resignation which he declined to tender and she fired him.
Regularly commenting on security issues since, Griffith recently took a stab at the PP for its proposal to meet with the Government for crime talks. In his first task with the PP—as Persad-Bissessar’s National Security adviser—he recommended the PP not take the Offshore Patrol Vessels which the previous Manning PNM government had ordered. The PNM while in Opposition and during elections was highly critical of this.