Time for the top cop to go

THE EDITOR: I am disgusted at the poor management of the Police Service under Stephen Williams. After so many six-month extensions as Ag Police Commissioner, it is safe to say he has not done anything innovative in the fight against crime. The entire service is demotivated under his leadership.

The Police Academy, the unit responsible for recruiting new officers, is in a mess. Applicants are made to go through a tedious recruiting process (which is against the chronological recruiting stages set out in the Police Service Regulations 2007) and after reaching the polygraph stage, 95 per cent of them are told they failed, with no evidence to support such.

Mind you, this recruiting process costs the service thousands of dollars, having to pay for medical, psychometric and polygraph tests for each applicant.

If the steps outlined in the regulations were followed, the service could save millions of dollars in recruiting.

Instead, a senior officer was transferred from the Police Academy after highlighting this at a recent Comstat meeting (a weekly meeting held by the commissioner with all 1st Division officers).

Late prime minister Patrick Manning knew what he was doing when he vetoed Williams’ appointment for commissioner. Yet he has been allowed to act as commissioner for years after.

When will this movie with all this acting be finished? When will we get some new ideas and new leadership in this country? When will we see an improvement in the way we interact with our customers, the public? When, most of all, will we see a decrease in serious crimes? When will TT become a paradise again? Time for Stephen Williams to go.

WAYNE MOHAMMED, Port of Spain