CoP slams PCA, media, 'bush lawyers' over Hackshaw matter

Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith
 - Jeff Mayers
Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith - Jeff Mayers

FRESH out of hospital after suffering from an inflamed gallbladder, Police Commissioner Gary Griffith on Tuesday sought to clarify what he deemed misinformation, while criticising several people, including members of the media.

Griffith trained his guns on director of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) David West. He also chastised two editors at Newsday: editor-in-chief Judy Raymond and assistant Sunday editor Darren Bahaw. Editor-in-chief of the Express Omatie Lyder, political activist Kirk Waithe and his former colleague retired ASP turned PNM candidate Michael Seales also came under fire.

Griffith’s main grouse, though, was with West, who he said acted unprofessionally and without ethics when the PCA issued a media release recommending that Griffith act on its findings involving acting Deputy Police Commissioner (DCP) Irwin Hackshaw.

In March, the PCA launched two separate investigations against Hackshaw, who was then acting as a DCP and was even appointed to act as the CoP in Griffith's absence. One investigation focused on Hackshaw's working as a security consultant since 2014 for a number of businesses without the approval of CoPs Stephen Williams and Harold Phillips.

In a media release last week the PCA found there was no criminal liability on Hackshaw’s part in relation to the first matter but highlighted that he had breached the police regulations, and called on Griffith to act on that.

In response, Griffith said, given that Hackshaw is the second most senior police officer in the service and without any substantive DCPs, he is unable to do so.

On Tuesday, Griffith chastised all those who chided him for not acting against Hackshaw, referring to some as “bush lawyers.”

He added that there was no need for the PCA to issue a public statement, as there is an open-door policy between the two offices. He said there could be a misconception that the PCA is biased against the Police Service in some of its public comments, and those statements could erode public trust in the PCA.

When asked if the police service was unforgiving of the PCA, Griffith said it was not about that. He added: “You can’t continue to be acting in a certain manner with a strained relationship between the police service and your organisation.

"Obviously you need to change your ways. You can’t say things are in the public’s interest. Stop using public interest. It is a cop-out.

“We have seen Mr Darren Bahaw in that article (on Sunday, which stated that Griffith has the power to act on Hackshaw) with bush lawyers. Mr Seales, who is still getting over his tabanca as a politician, decides to rush now to give comments.”

He claimed Raymond wrote or was responsible for writing some 20 editorials against the police and that he will defend his officers if need be.

Referring to the Express editorial on Monday, Griffith read out an excerpt that said if Griffith is unable to address the Hackshaw matter, then the Police Service Commission (PSC) should step in “and show him how to do it.”

“The audacity of the Express…Omatie Lyder and the Express editorial yet again dropped the ball. The PSC, ma’am, has no authority to take any action on an ACP. He is not a DCP or a commissioner. You want to rush in there too, feeling you know more than anyone else, to embarrass your paper yet again.”

The PSC has sole jurisdiction over the three DCPs and the Police Commissioner. They appraise and can initiate disciplinary procedures against them.

Griffith continued: “Officer Brown, they call her boy blue, because they always know what the police can do. But they don’t do research.,,and when this is public you give the wrong impression.”

Griffith said he was just clarifying all misconceptions in his media briefing arising out of many public comments on the matter.

Asked if a senior police officer on pre-retirement leave can be recalled to facilitate the tribunal, since they are members of the service with seniority to Hackshaw, Griffith said no.

“The fact of the matter is, remember the Government put out a policy where you can’t, well the individuals, after they leave, I can’t bring back someone who is on pre-retirement. That has to come, again, externally. Again, as the Commissioner of Police, I do not have that authority."

He said it would be much easier to have three DCPs appointed than to bring back the officers on pre-retirement leave just to adjudicate over Hackshaw’s matter.

On Waithe’s media releases calling on Griffith to act, hesaid: “I am not going to be pushed or bullied by any lynch mob out there, by any little children who are activist turned politician turned activist again to put pressure on people.”

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