Deosaran: Stop tinkering with Police Service

Therefore it is necessary to stop the “tinkering” of the Police Service, and proceed with a comprehensive review of the structure and operations of the Police Service.

Former president of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Professor Ramesh Deosaran made the statement yesterday at the Inaugural Ceremony of the Ninth Executive of the TTPS Social and Welfare Association at the Trinidad Hilton in Port-of-Spain.

“Over the years, the organisation and structure of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service have been wounded in several ways – even though vast sums of money have been spent in one way or another.

At the same time, challenges of lawlessness and crime of all kinds from top to bottom in the society have increased,” he said.

“Nothing less than a comprehensive review of the structure and operations of the Police Service will do now, possibly starting with Dr Keith Rowley’s early suggestion for a performance audit of the Service,” he continued.

Deosaran expressed the hope that the new executive, consisting of president Michael Seales, vice president Richard Corbett, secretary Anand Ramesar, assistant secretary Cynthia Trim, treasurer Joshua Pierre and three others, would have the opportunity to “heal the wounds, to press your case forward while gaining the respect of both government and the population you serve.” However he highlighted six matters of deep concern regarding the structure and operations of the Police Service. These include the current status and implications of the procedures for appointing a Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of Police; the Police Service Commission remains as a politically- driven agency, while the appointment of the CoP and Deputy CoP is also unwittingly largely a politically-driven one; The extent to which the Prime Minister’s veto over such appointments still exists; implications of the government proposals for a Police Management Board and Police Inspectorate; whether or not a foreign Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner are more advantageous over local ones; and the operational and political dilemmas in police governance.

Deosaran also noted one of the challenges of the police was gangs.

“The spread of gangs, the formation of gangs, and the maintenance of gangs, and the things that they commit that produce so many problems for the police, the government and the courts, that single issue has to be seriously dealt with,” he said.

He stated gangs stem from a continuous production of youths who feel marginalised, and disenchanted, and so it was one of the most fervent ambitions of the late Makandal Daaga’s to empower young people, especially black youths, in the country.

“We have to look at the parts of the education system that do not prepare the graduates for a life of civility and productivity. Their lifestyles have to change.

The police have a job to do but the education system has a job to do also,” he noted.