WORK OR BE FIRED

He warned that in the near future, he will fire or block the promotion of officers deemed to be under-performing.

Williams - according to very well-placed sources - is reported as telling the officers, “some of you, having attained the age of 55, if you are not performing I could use my authority under the Police Service Regulations to not recommend that you be promoted.” Newsday was told that an officer, attaining the age of 55, if he/she is not promoted (for whatever reason) must proceed on retirement.

In a fiery address at the meeting to examine crime statistics (or Compstat for computer-generated statistics) at Police Administration Building in Port-of-Spain, the top cop said he was not pleased at all with the overall performance of the Police Service in terms of detection and the ability to bring crime down.

Williams said drastic action will have to be taken to ensure officers carry out the mandate of the service which is to ‘Protect and Serve’, and has no problem invoking powers given to him under the Police Service Act to get the job done.

Apart from blocking the promotion of an officer, Ag CoP Williams is also empowered to fire an officer. The Police Service Act of 2006, Part IV, Paragraph 31 (1) states: “The Commissioner may terminate the appointment of an officer on the grounds of reported inefficiency and having regard to the officer’s job performances and, where applicable, his performance appraisal reports.” At the meeting Williams singled out Northern and Central as the divisions where the murder rate and serious crimes are too high. Up until yesterday there were 104 murders in the Northern Division.

Hours earlier, the Acting CoP made some changes in Northern Division by removing Snr Supt Simboonath Rajkumar as the divisional head, replacing him with Snr Supt McDonald Jacob with immediate effect.

Williams also declared that effective immediately, he will be taking a personal interest in Northern Division to deal head on with the high incidence of murders. Previously, the Acting CoP had as Williams said he felt the time had now come for him to be on the ground with the officers not only advising but to be on the front-line, going on mobile and foot patrols and strategising how to deal with many of the gun-related murders.

On a positive note, Williams said he was heartened to learn about several gun seizures in the division with more than 100 guns being taken off the streets to date.

With respect to Central Division, Williams said new anti-crime strategies will be adopted under new divisional head Snr Supt Kenny McIntyre to be supervised by Assistant Commissioner of Police Surujdeen Persad.

Williams urged the officers to encourage community police officers to foster closer relationships with the public so citizens could be the eyes and ears of the police to assist in the fight against crime.

On Tuesday, Williams was given a six-month extension as Ag CoP for the ninth time by the Police Service Commission.