ACPs Simon, Samaroo nominated for Deputy CoP posts

THE NAMES of two senior police officers have been put before Parliament to be approved to fill the two existing vacancies of deputy commissioners of police.

ACP Curt Simon and ACP Ramnarine Samaroo were identified as capable candidates by the Police Service Commission (PSC) in its submission to President Paula Mae Weekes who forwarded the names to Parliament.

ACP Erla Harewood-Christopher is the only officer who was approved by Parliarment as a deputy commissioner in October.

While Samaroo's name was submitted to the Parliament in June, his nomination was not debated before Parliament went on recess.

The PSC, in a statement in October, said the nomination of other candidates could not go forward because of an absence of "critical personnel information from the police service of other potential candidates."

A shortlist of nominees who are capable of performing the functions of deputy commissioner was needed, it noted, in order to make a recommendation to the President.

The submissions in Parliament come two days after the Police Social and Welfare Association called on the PSC to work towards filling the posts, and to introduce protocols to more streamlined appointments of senior police officers. The association's president ASP Gideon Dickson called the process "cumbersome, bureaucratic and without merit."