TT to lean on NY commissioner’s skills

According to Griffith, the 287 policemen and women were the largest number of recruits in 31 years. Although the minister said that the number of serious crimes has decreased with the country seeing the lowest in 31 years, it seems that more was needed.

“For eight months in Cabinet we have approved for Mayor Rudy Giuliani to do exactly what he did in new York City and is awaiting to be processed. Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and his company has been approved by Cabinet to do a complete police audit.

“There are many other initiatives we have established, but not able to get off the ground because of the bureaucratic red tape in certain avenues. It is important that there is important transparency and I think it can be fast tracked, hopefully early January,” Griffith told Newsday.

The minister scoffed at the effort by the former PNM government to bring Scotland Yard officials to deal with the escalating crime situation in 2005. “You cannot compare Scotland Yard with Giuliani and Bill Bratton. We had a lot of foreign used retired Englishmen who were basically raping the Treasury at the cost of $150,000 a month with very little training.

“Bratton has become one of the most successful persons in the world to reduce crime in almost every major city in the United States and the United Kingdom. Let us not consider foreign used retirees who are here to get sunshine and $150,000 a month with Bill Bratton,” he said.

He noted former Canadian-born TT Police Commissioner, Dwayne Gibbs, could not be compared to Giuliani or Bratton as he did not have a track record with crime fighting.

Gibbs and his compatriot Deputy Commissioner Jack Ewatski had resigned with more than a year of their three-year contracts remaining

“Let’s stop comparing commissioner Gibbs and retired foreign used English constables with people of the calibre as Bill Bratton and Mayor Giuliani. You don’t bring individuals here with technical ability, but tactical ability and that is what Giuliani and Bill Bratton have,” Griffith said.

His advice to the new recruits was that they needed to be careful in how they carried out their duties. “They have now become one of the noblest of professions, so it is important that they operate in that manner. They need to look at the character traits they got from their training and use that in carrying out their duties. They need to be very careful as to what they do because at times it will take just one mistake by one person to affect the whole image of the Police Service,” Griffith said.