Geisha Kow­lessar

Act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Stephen Williams is un­fazed by be­ing grant­ed yet an­oth­er six-month ex­ten­sion.

In fact, Williams said that has giv­en him the im­pe­tus to strive fur­ther in cre­at­ing the Po­lice Ser­vice as a lead­ing en­ti­ty.

Last week, the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PSC) gave Williams his sev­enth ex­ten­sion.

He has been act­ing as Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er since Cana­da-born Dwayne Gibbs re­signed from the post in 2012.

Williams would con­tin­ue to act as top cop un­til Ju­ly 31.

As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice De­o­dat Du­lalchan has been ap­point­ed to act as Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice un­til Ju­ly 17.

Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, Williams de­scribed the move as an op­por­tu­ni­ty to build the Po­lice Ser­vice, an or­gan­i­sa­tion where he had spent and served the coun­try for 37 years.

On whether he be­lieved the re­peat­ed ex­ten­sion was un­fair or had frus­trat­ed him in any way, Williams said: "I am a unique hu­man be­ing. Those things do not cross my mind. I fo­cus on the pos­i­tive out of every­thing.

"I am the head of the or­gan­i­sa­tion and I lead the Po­lice Ser­vice in ful­fill­ing its goals and ob­jec­tives to the best of my abil­i­ty."

He said un­der his stew­ard­ship no oth­er com­mis­sion­er has led the Po­lice Ser­vice through a re­duc­tion in se­ri­ous crimes by some 15 per cent.

Al­so un­der his lead, road traf­fic ac­ci­dents have al­so been re­duced.

Williams said while the Po­lice Ser­vice still faced chal­lenges re­gard­ing homi­cides, he as­sured that was a hur­dle which would al­so be crossed.

Asked about To­ba­go-born As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (ACP) Vin­cel Ed­wards who has over 30 years ser­vice and who has been re­port­ed­ly tipped to be the next po­lice com­mis­sion­er, Williams said: "How could some­one speak about the out­come with­out look­ing at the process?

"Those things are pro­mot­ed ru­mours. If Ed­wards is said to be tipped for the post then the sit­u­a­tion is politi­cised and this is not so. There is a process."

On head of the Po­lice Ser­vice So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion In­sp Anand Rame­sar's in­ten­tion to ap­ply for the post of po­lice com­mis­sion­er, Williams said if that was so then so be it.

Va­ca­tion leave

On whether he in­tend­ed to take a lengthy va­ca­tion leave as was pre­vi­ous­ly re­port­ed, Williams said that was not the case.

He said he had not yet ap­plied for any ap­proval of leave.

Williams said he had a dis­cus­sion with his of­fi­cers in­form­ing them that of­fi­cers must pro­ceed on some part of their va­ca­tion leave for this year, es­pe­cial­ly those who had ac­cu­mu­lat­ed in ex­cess of 90 days.

"And this in­cludes mem­bers of the ex­ec­u­tive. It is a sim­ple ad­min­is­tra­tive process and this al­so in­cludes me. I am the head of the or­gan­i­sa­tion and I must al­so take some of my va­ca­tion leave .

"Fif­teen per cent of the Po­lice Ser­vice is au­tho­rised to be on leave at any one time and we have to man­age it prop­er­ly. The turnover has to be a short pe­ri­od for every­one... a month or so.

"So it is not a lengthy pe­ri­od be­cause every­one must be al­lowed to pro­ceed on part of their leave," Williams added.

On how much va­ca­tion he in­tend­ed to pro­ceed on, the act­ing top cop said he could not im­me­di­ate­ly say.