Erla got it wrong from the start

THE EDITOR: When I saw Erla Harewood-Christopher at her first interaction with the media upon her assumption of office as the Commissioner of Police, I formed the impression that she “couldn’t talk,” as we say in local parlance.

Also, it was clear to me then that she was scared of the media as she seemed quite uncomfortable at that briefing. She has proven me right since.

Those shortcomings might have allowed for the police service communications department to have her face the cameras behind closed doors to deliver that 16-minute piece of "non-news" recently, which was followed by a TTPS-taken picture of her on the so-called “beat” examining a motorist’s driving documents.

The commissioner should not have to be running behind the criminal element herself as a former commissioner would have us believe, since she has a deputy commissioner or assistant commissioner in charge of dealing with the crime function and reporting to her. However, she certainly looked like an extremely overpaid constable in that staged picture as she examined the driver’s documents as part of the damage-control for her failures.

Being scared of the media is one thing, but treating reporters like dirt with her foolish answers to their legitimate questions is quite another. More so, her stated intention not to interact with the operatives of one paper because of her perceived displeasure with the way in which she is reported, shows immaturity on her part.

Her communications department did her an injustice by allowing that staged spiel in the absence of the media and which did not allow for her to be questioned on its contents.

Also, her appearance without her headdress made her look untidy given her hairstyle. Such an appearance should never have been made without the requisite headwear, which would have given her a finished look and told her viewers by way of the cap braids that she was the commissioner.

The trend over the past several years has been for police personnel to be appearing in public without their caps. Is it any wonder then that with the commissioners doing it as well, proper uniform-wearing has gone out the window?

Does anyone see members of the military appearing anywhere in uniform without their headwear?

CLYDE ALPHONSO

via e-mail