PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC—Parliament on Wednesday approved President Christine Kangaloo’s notification regarding the appointment of Junior Benjamin, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), to act as Commissioner of Police as the investigations continue into the allegation of misbehavior in public office involving the Commissioner of Police, Erla Harewood-Christopher.
Parliament also gave the nod to ACP Curt Simon as an acting DCP.
Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley, who tabled both the motions for the appointments as a result of the head of state’s notifications following the submissions made by the Police Service Commission (PSC), said he wanted to make it “pellucidly” clear that his administration had nothing to do with the situation confronting the police commissioner.
He read the contents of a letter sent to President Kangaroo by the PSC chairman, Dr. Wendell Wallace, in which he wrote that Harewood-Christopher had been told to “cease to report for duty and cease to discharge the duties of Commissioner of Police.”
In the January 31 letter, the PSC chairman said that the action against Harewood-Christopher was being taken “due to an ongoing investigation into misbehavior in public office.”
The PSC said that on January 30, it received a communication from the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Intelligence and Investigation, stating that the Police Commissioner “was cautioned, informed that she was a suspect in an ongoing investigation into misbehavior in public office and was under arrest.”
Over the last weekend, Harewood-Christopher was released from police custody after being questioned in connection with the illegal procurement of high-powered rifles.
Her lawyers have since sent a pre-action protocol letter to the PSC chairman, given a February 4 deadline or face judicial review proceedings.
Rowley told Parliament that a number of members in public, either of their own volition or encouraged by conversations led by people who are either uninformed or …just involved, but involved in not knowing what they are talking about.
“This letter summarises the situation. The Police Service Commission, which is the constitutional authority for making an appointment in these posts of acting commissioner or acting deputy commissioner, the Police Service Commission followed the pathway in coming to its decision at the Commission to advise the President that they would like to make this appointment.
“This is a good time for me as head of the government to make it pellucidly clear that this operation has nothing to do with the government. The government is a separate operating entity in this matter to the Police Service and the Police Service Commission and the Office of President.”
Rowley told legislators from the origin where a police investigation was undertaken without the government’s knowledge that had “no role in directing the police as to who they should go after, who they should investigate, how the investigation should go, how they should arrest or not arrest.
“The government has absolutely no role in that, and on this particular matter as others, the government will be informed about what the police are doing when the police make it public,” he said, noting that the police investigation “at whatever stage it is or was, the police informed the Police Service Commission of its operation.
‘The Commission takes no direction from the government, asks for no clearance or direction, and the Police Service Commission proceeded to advise the President on what it would like to do concerning the offices of Commissioner and acting Commissioner in the police service”.
Rowley said that it appears to him and the government that the PSC “has seen it fit to take action which has resulted in a vacancy arising at the level of Commissioner of Police, and we are called here to fill that vacancy by identifying the person identified to act in that position.”
Rowley acknowledged that he had been written to by the police as chairman of the National Security Council (NSC) regarding the importation of two Acouraoy International AX2 Bolt-Action Sniper Rifles and an assortment of high-valued operating accessories, including 7.62 mm monoblock suppressor scopes complete with scope mounts and bipods.
He said he had the “NSC to find the appropriate answer…for onward to the Director of Public Prosecution.
He said he had no worries about being called as a witness if the matter went to court and that he would do so in keeping with the oath he took as prime minister to uphold the law of the country, adding, “If I am summoned to court, I have no fear.”
Opposition legislator Dr. Roodal Moonilal questioned whether a vacancy exists in the office of the Commissioner of Police, given that under the PSC’s own guidelines, she had not been dismissed.
“Is there a vacancy today to fill in the Office of the Commissioner of Police?” he asked, adding that based on the letter sent by the PSC to the President, Prime Minister Rowley did not ask the question which the opposition has: “What is the effect of this?
“Is this a suspension pursuant to the Police Service Commission’s rules and regulations,” he asked, adding the PSC, by notice in 2023, outlined policies regarding the top posts within the police service.
He said that the police notes that if the top cop is out of the country, on vacation leave, or unable because of illness “or any other reason to perform the function of Commissioner of Police, the Office of Commissioner of Police is or is likely to become vacant.”
But Prime Minister Rowley reminded legislators that the PSC guidelines also referenced “any other” and that the phrase “any other” is a catch-all phrase.
“It is an omnibus phrase. So what it means is if what is listed there doesn’t cover what is required, then you are not to stop from doing it because under any other, like in this case, the substantive holder is not sick, is not on vacation leave, is not out of the country. Still, the police have indicated to the Police Service Commission that she is under investigation for serious criminal conduct”.
and then 