ACP sues over promotion to deputy commissioner

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Glen Dillon has been granted permission to challenge the Police Service Commission’s (PSC) decision not to nominate him as an acting deputy commissioner, allegedly because he failed to meet the requirements.

Justice Devindra Rampersad granted leave and set May 5 for the first hearing of the matter.

Dillon, of Crown Point, Tobago, wants the court to direct the PSC to reconsider his application without using its relevancy policy for the offices of commissioner and deputy commissioner.

Dillon’s claim says he has an MBA and over 40 years’ of service in the police. There are six other officers in the rank of ACP, and the claim says he is the most senior of them.

The claim said in 2021, the process for selection of officers to act as DCP was amended to remove seniority as a consideration for the post, while requiring the PSC to establish an order-of-merit list of those officers who held or are acting ACPs and who had the qualifications and experience for the office.

Those qualifications included a degree from a recognised university in law, criminal justice, criminology, police service management or any other relevant subject.

The claim said when Dillon enrolled for his MBA, there was no established policy governing “relevancy” of the degree, and at his enrolment, he would have satisfied the requirement for the position of DCP.

He completed the MBA programme in June 2018, and in 2019, the qualifications requirement for the DCP post were amended to include “any other relevant master’s degree,” which, his claim said, he had.

However, the lawsuit said on September 26, 2022, when he submitted his qualifications and experience to the PSC for consideration to act as DCP, along with a recommendation from the acting commissioner, two officers were nominated, but he was not.

On December 7, 2022, the Director of Personnel Administration (DPA) told him his MBA was not one of the disciplines prescribed in law and the commission relied on its “police service commission relevancy policy,” established on March 22, 2022, to determine whether he had a relevant degree. He was told his MBA was not relevant.

The claim said this was the first time he was aware of such a policy, and he sought a copy of it through a freedom-of-information request. He received it on January 10. The lawsuit says that was the first time he had seen it, despite the DPA's saying copies were sent to the acting commissioner for circulation to members and also uploaded to the service commission department’s website.

It also says the PSC's decision was in breach of natural justice, unreasonable and breached Dillon’s legitimate expectation, based on an established practice made on the basis of irrelevant considerations.

“The respondent, in creating and relying on the relevancy policy in making the impugned decision, has fettered its discretion in respect of appointments to the position of DCP,” the claim says.

Dillon said on affidavit because of the PSC's actions, he had suffered "distress, inconvenience, loss of opportunity and damage." He is seeking compensation.

"Although I satisfied the requirements to be nominated for promotion to the post of DCP, I continue to be denied this opportunity...As a result, I have been denied opportunities for further promotion within the TTPS and the attendant increase(s) in salary and benefits for each higher rank.

"I have effectively been denied the opportunity to act as commissioner of police and/or to be appointed to the substantive position of commissioner of police, which represents the pinnacle of my career as a police officer and a position to which I have aspired throughout my time in the police service."

He said the PSC's decision has also "greatly distressed" him, since he is being denied "the fruits of my unblemished service and dedication to the TTPS for over the last 40-odd years."

Dillon is represented by attorneys Michael Rooplal, Saira Lakhan, Kristy Mohan and Jamie Amanda Maharaj.