CoP: Day of total policing 'a day of total stupidity'

POLICE Commissioner Gary Griffith is calling the 2015 Day of Total Policing a "day of total stupidity."

At a press conference in Port of Spain on Wednesday morning, Griffith said, "On Monday March 23, 2015, during the hours of 4 am to just about 11.40 am there were 29 road-block exercises conducted within seven of the nine divisions in TT; 341 officers were involved. They embarked on a nationwide operation and this resulted in gridlock, massive traffic congestion along the nation's roadways. Some of the affected areas in areas included the East-West corridor, San Fernando, Port of Spain, the Claude Noel Highway in Scarborough, Tobago resulting in devastating discomfort and inconvenience to the motoring public."

He said the case is closed as a 2011 court of appeal judgement ruled it unfair, unlawful and oppressive to prefer disciplinary breaches to an event after more than four years.

Investigations were conducted which identified poor communication protocols, improper structure for regional assistant commissioners and deputy commissioners to effectively take control for national issues and ineffective intelligence gathering as the causes.

He believes a mistake was made, describing it as "inefficient policing" and apologised, assuring citizens it would not happen again.

"What we need to do is not try to cover it up and to try to pretend that something did not take place. Whether this was deliberate or not, that is something totally different," he said.