JUDGING GARY

The performance of Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith in effectively managing the police service, reducing crime, the fear of crime, bringing criminal to justice and restoring public confidence is measured every day by discerning members of the public.

But how has Griffith performed in the eyes of his employer, the Police Service Commission?

The public is to get a first-hand view of Griffith's first annual appraisal on Wednesday.

The assessment of Griffith's first year in office, from August 2018 to August 2019, was recently completed after unexplained delays arising out of the restrictions imposed to curtail the covid19 pandemic, according to Bliss Seepersad chairman of the Police Service Commission.

Griffith says, unlike any other CoP before him, he will disclose the details of the appraisal.

This comes as he marks his second year in office, and the public too will judge his promise exactly two years ago to reduce crime and reform the police service.

Griffith, a former captain in the TT Regiment and a former politician, who served as national security advisor to then prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and later as national security minister under her administration between 2010-2015.

He was sacked from his ministerial post in February 2015 after siding with David West, the Director of the Police Complaints Authority, in a criminal complaint against then attorney general Anand Ramlogan who is accused of trying to get West to decline giving evidence as a witness for Prime Minister Rowley in a defamation lawsuit.

Griffith has had a rollercoaster ride of public support and criticism over his often combative language and sometimes blind support for police officers accused of wrongdoing, particularly in instances of fatal police shootings.

He remains unapologetic about his stance – and also says if there is evidence of acts of criminal conduct, then the officers should be fired immediately as he will judge at a higher standard than civilians.

He has a 12-member public relations unit, headed by former journalist Francis Joseph which also incorporates the 18 members of the audiovisual unit lead by Supt Wayne Mystar, the public information officer of the police service.

Griffith is also accessible to the media almost around the clock and has achieved almost rockstar status among the horde of his social media fan club and an equal number of pessimists.

From the outset, Griffith also made himself accessible to the public, providing a hotline to report crime directly to him (482-GARY). He sought to promote hundreds of officers of varying ranks to boost the morale of his team.

He set out on a bullet train to complete high-profile and politically sensitive investigations such as E-mailgate, the discovery of marijuana at the private residence of then prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, and claims that current prime minister Dr Rowley benefited from proceeds of an illegal oil-related transaction in a foreign bank account, among others.

In July 2019, the police announced the closure of the E-mailgate case after the DPP found there was insufficient evidence to meet the threshold of criminal conduct. In that matter, Rowley, then opposition leader, revealed in Parliament in May 2013 a thread of purported e-mails from email addresses of politicians- Persad-Bissessar, Anand Ramlogan, Gary Griffith and Suruj Rambachan - discussing a possible criminal conspiracy to spy on the DPP and harm an investigative reporter in the wake of the Section 34 scandal.

In May, Griffith said he allegations made by Opposition MP Dr Roodal Moonilal against Rowley that he benefited from a financial transaction linked to AV Drilling lucrative contract with then State-owned oil company, Petrotrin, was also closed after police could not find any evidence to support the allegations.

Griffith has also faced criticism for his decision to hire soldiers and coast guard officers as Special Reserve police to form a protective barrier around him as he targeted rogue police and drug kingpins.

Griffith has also recruited a number of advisers, including head of the police legal unit Christian Chandler and former Lt Commander of the coast guard officer, Sheldon Edghill, who serves as head of the executive management service; and a number of retired police officers to help him restructure the organisation.

His efforts have won him some allies. But other officers, both senior and junior, refer to Griffith as a “Special Reserve CoP,” since he was not a career police officer. Senior officers close to Griffith say there is "a cabal" working to undermine the efforts of the CoP.

Griffith has not publicly spoken about his challenges from within but has expressed his frustration over getting the police service to change its archaic, bureaucratic way of doing business.

The establishment of a well-staffed legal unit has been viewed as an attempt to bypass the Office of the DPP but he denied those claims, insisting it was not necessary to seek the DPP's advice on run-of-the-mill matters.

His criticism of key independent institutions such as the Office of the DPP, the Police Complaints Authority, the magistracy, defence lawyers, members of the media and social activists have drawn wide criticism as well as some support

As well as his haste to defend police officers accused of wrongdoing even though investigations are in their early stages has also put the CoP on the defensive far too often.

The spike in fatal police-related has also sparked fear and growing concern about the possibility of extra-judicial killings. For this year alone, close to 50 people have been killed during confrontations with police, over 80 per cent more than the comparable figure for last year.

In one of those cases, referred to as the Rock City 5, police shot and killed five young men, among them two teenagers in October 2018. The PCA recently sent its recommendations in that incident to the DPP, which are currently under review.

The PCA is also investigating several other fatal police shootings, including the June 27 triple killing in Second Caledonia, Morvant, which sparked widespread protests for two days.

Griffith has also claimed police officers are working with criminals and journalists to get him out of office but said he was not deterred by those attempts.

His latest challenge is to discipline the second most senior officer in the service, ACP Irwin Hackshaw, for moonlighting as a security consultant without approval.

Even though he has initiated the process, it may not get anywhere, as the CoP will encounter a significant hurdle in appointing a tribunal to investigate the claims.

The two acting deputy commissioners of police, Jayson Forde and Mc Donald Jacob, are junior to Hackshaw. The regulations which govern the police service say specifically that only a senior officer can judge a junior officer. That leaves Griffith. But he has said he cannot be "judge, jury and executioner" in Hackshaw’s case.

Hackshaw will retire in early November.

Griffith has begun the restructuring of the police service, merging several intelligence-based groups under one banner – the Central Intelligence Bureau; formed an elite operations unit, the Special Operations Response Team, under the command of Sgt Mark Hernandez; and hired a number of experts to assist the police in solving cold cases, white-collar crime, and cyber-crimes, among others, and dismantle criminal gangs.

In June last year, Griffith unveiled the draft plan to restructure the police, which included a mobile app to report crimes, improved ballistic testing, and the police service’s own forensic unit and hospital, among other facilities. He also launched an initiative, I Support Our Service, aimed at developing a partnership with key business organisations willing to donate goods and services to assist police officers and improve their working conditions.

As he enters the third year of his contract, the public and his employer will be judging him more harshly to deliver on his promises to reduce murders which reached 538 toll last year, the second-highest, and already stands at 295 for the first eight months of this year.

To the credit of the police, the detection of murders has increased this year as officers rely more on technological tools to solve crime.