Griffith promotes 49 inspectors after court lifts injunction

POLICE Commissioner Gary Griffith on Wednesday promoted 49 officers to the rank of inspector two days after a High Court judge discharged an injunction which prevented him from doing so.

Griffith congratulated the newly promoted inspectors and told them he was confident such a day would come.

The commissioner had been stymied by the injunction which was granted to a group of 29 police officers who challenged the promotion process in December.

Last week, a separate group of sergeants filed an application seeking to have the court either discharge or vary the injunction so that they could be promoted before the order of merit list expired at the end of the year.

Griffith said he obliged to respect the court’s instructions.

He said he always believed “the injunction which was filed was ill conceived and a waste of everyone’s time.”

He said it was his hope to reduce the number of officers “acting” and wants to fill as many vacant positions as possible as soon as they become available.

“I implore you as police officers to continue to serve the public and your colleagues with integrity and to not fall into the trap of seeking only your personal objectives even when those objectives are at the expense of colleagues.”

He said self-serving action were the cancer on the police service.

“Being ambitious is not only acceptable, but as commissioner I encourage it. However, one’s personal ambition cannot be at the expense of your colleagues especially when your personal quest has the potential to negatively impact your colleagues.

“Self-serving actions can impact a colleague’s pension and/or gratuity and therefore can never be acceptable and must always be resisted.

“For failure to resist such myopic temptations can create a scenario similar to this one which almost led to some of you not receiving your much deserved promotion at the time it was due,” he said, in obvious reference to the failed lawsuit by the group of police officers.