Top cop: ‘I am running my blood to water to fight crime’

Police Commissioner Gary Griffith says he has been working round the clock since he took office last August, and told doctors he was stressed, missing meals, and not sleeping properly, and this may have contributed to his body crashing.

He told Newsday: “I am running my blood to water, destroying my body in an effort to make this a safer country for our citizens, and I would continue to do so. Yet some, ironically, have found a voice that the only thing that they can do to fix TT, and a few others, who defend criminals when we arrest them, is to try to undermine what I am trying to do because of their own selfish agenda.

"For decades every citizen complained, and rightly so, that criminals have taken over the country and the TTPS is not doing enough.

"However, after a few months under my watch, a handful with absolutely no knowledge or experience in law enforcement now suddenly get a voice and all of a sudden it is a 180-degree turn and they find that the police is now doing too much, and using too much excessive force.

"It is the right of citizens to give views, but not when you lie with false information to try to deliberately affect the TTPS from doing their job."

Nevertheless, in spite of this and his physical reaction to job pressures, he said, "I do not intend to slow down, I intend to go up a gear.”

On Sunday, Griffith told his wife Nicole he was in pain and they decided to go to the St Clair Medical Centre.