PSC: Don’t elect police commissioner

Do not elect the Commissioner of Police (CoP) urged Dr Maria-Therese Gomes chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC) – which oversees the selection of the head of the Police Service (TTPS) – when grilled by Parliament’s Joint Select Committee (JSC) on National Security.

The call for the CoP to be elected by the general public was made recently in the report of the Police Manpower Audit Committee chaired by Prof Ramesh Deosaran. However, in replying to a query by committee member Saddam Hosein, Gomes said, “We do not support the election of a police commissioner because that would be utterly convoluted.”

She attacked the media for publishing Deosaran’s idea.

“So the media looks at stuff and chooses the one they think will be the most sensational. And we cannot allow ourselves to fall for that, or for the public to fall for that.”

Hinds asked if she had any suggestions for the better management and monitoring of the TTPS. She offered no suggestions. Hinds said she could offer her ideas by year-end. “You will agree that the crime epidemic, that you described so well earlier, will not go on holidays for that holiday,” Hinds said.

Gomes retorted, “And it will not be solved even if we were to meet that deadline.” Hinds replied, “You will notice that we are here on December 20 and we will be willing to come again before December 25.”

He then asked Gomes if she knew of a service commission culture that says things must take two and three years to get done, to which she admitted, “The wheels of bureaucracy turn slowly.”

Earlier Hinds scoffed at reports of 745 and 995 guns seized last year and this year respectively as “a jiggle in a piggle,” and urged Gomes to ask the Strategic Services Agency about the true number of illegal guns in TT. As Hinds called for urgency in tackling crime, Gomes said, “Nobody has a magic wand changing a culture of violence that pervades society and the world.”

Hinds remarked that management and accountability in the TTPS are not very effective. “The Minister can’t direct the CoP. It appears the only real accountability is through the courts.”