‘We will not be bullied by you’

PRESIDENT of the TT Police Service Social Welfare Association Insp Gideon Dickson said the association will not be bullied by Police Commissioner Gary Griffith.

Last week, at two media briefings, Griffith took aim at the association for allegedly protecting rogue officers and failing to assist an officer who lost his leg in a motorcycle accident.

But in a Facebook post on Monday, Dickson responded: “The association will not be bullied or attacked. We stand with the highest principle of our motto of ‘Service before self,’ so we are calling on the Commissioner of Police, if he does not want the advice of the association and if he finds that his pronouncements are in keeping with judicial principles, to continue along those pathways. We are not about taking our matters into the public space but, enough is enough.”

Griffith, during a ceremony to praise a civilian for assisting the officer injured in the crash, said the association was too busy complaining about him to the Police Service Commission instead of coming to the aid of the officer.

At another press conference Griffith said: “Police officers are supposed to be more disciplined and have less rights than the average citizen, as the police officers are expected to be at a higher standard.

“Unfortunately in TT, I see it is just the opposite. In the police service, if someone is transferred, they want to rush to court, to protest and fight for their rights. This is when we start speaking about service before self, and instead of having that, it goes the other way around.”

In his six-minute video, Dickson said the association “came under unwarranted, unprovoked and unjustified attack” by Griffith. He said it continues to stand on the highest ethical standards as it relates to the association representing its membership.

He added: “We frown on being called rogue. Not because we have a difference of opinion you will label and castrate the association in the way you have done. As president of the association I cannot accept that and the membership will not. You cannot go out into the public and castrate the association and label it as rogue for doing what we are supposed to do.”

He called on Griffith to work with the association to solve issues rather than airing them publicly, adding that he will not allow his membership to be caught in a “rant and rave.” Dickson added that police officers are citizens and are beneficiaries of the protection the constitution offers like any other citizen