Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs is a "toothless bulldog" who is only concerned about uplifting his image. That was the charge yesterday by president of the Police Service Social and Welfare Association, Sgt Anand Ramesar, who also accused the top cop of being a poor manager. He spoke during an interview at his office at Besson Street Police Station, Port-of-Spain. Ramesar, who described the morale of the Police Service as being at an "all-time low," added: "I don't think the morale can get lower than it is right now."
Deputy Police Commissioner, Jack Ewatski, also was attacked by the association which labelled him as a non-performer. Ramesar said: "My conclusion is that these two officers are more concerned about their own image more than the welfare of our police officers. "So they respond to particular issues if it suits their particular position and not for the membership." Gibbs and Ewatski, both Canadians, took up office on September 20, last year. Apart from poor management Ramesar identified insufficient compensation and a lagging promotion process as the chronic issues plaguing the Police Service. Saying officers were fed up and frustrated, Ramesar warned that "any day now" they could decide to embark on a five-day sickout plan.
He said: "The strike remains a concern because the membership is bent on engaging in that particular exercise.
"I am concerned that the commissioner and the stakeholders in the National Security Ministry have not tried to deal with this in the early stages. "It spells disaster because it appears to coincide with what the labour movement is planning. If that happens I will not like to see that state of affairs existing in the country," Ramesar added. In the area of promotion, Ramesar said there were some 500 constables waiting to be promoted to corporals. He said: "Among them are officers with eight years experience and some have as much as 20 years experience.
"These persons are eligible to be promoted and there are vacancies that exist but the commissioner has fallen into the same routine of previous commissioners of which police officers always would have complained," Ramesar added. He reiterated that the issue of promotion was not being addressed by Gibbs, resulting in an avalanche of complaints by officers. He said: "What this commissioner is not recognising is that promotion is directly connected to morale. "It also improves the energy and input from these officers.
"Mr Gibbs is appearing to be very deaf to this particular need with his officers and the association is very concerned about this reaction on his part and he needs to provide an answer to our officers," Ramesar added.
He said there were scores of officers acting in positions that were vacant. He added: "Up to this point there has not been any consistency with how the commissioner has treated the human resource in the Police Service. "To start with, there still remains a dichotomy in the way the commissioner handles complaints by officers of the First Division and in the way he handles complaints by officers of the Second Division," Ramesar said. He also accused Gibbs of demonstrating scant courtesy to complaints raised by the association.
He said: "On a number of occasions we have noticed that the commissioner will redirect our concerns to different departments. "He will redirect us to Mr Williams or Mr Ewatski. It's as if Mr Gibbs is operating like a toothless bulldog. "History is repeating itself with this commissioner. We have been incurring the same problems with this commissioner as we had with previous commissioners," Ramesar said. Accusing Gibbs of also being ineffective and displaying poor management skills, Ramesar said he could not attribute any "direct positive development" in the Police Service to the top cop. He said: "Mr Gibbs has not demonstrated himself to be effective so far. He hasn't met any of our expectations.
"He has demonstrated an inability to appreciate the needs of police officers under his charge and respond to them," Ramesar added. Demanding Gibbs take heed to the officers' concerns Ramesar said since Gibbs assumed office he "did nothing" to positively impact upon the morale of the officers. "In fact there are a number of things which he would have done which would have contributed to the detriment of the morale," Ramesar said.
Pilot project detriment
Singling out the 21st Century Policing Project, Ramesar said before the initiative was implemented in the Western Division numerous concerns were raised by the associations with Gibbs and Ewatski. "Among them would have included accommodation at Western Division, as well as the deployment of the officers and there appear to be a continued unwillingness to take into consideration the concerns of the membership," Ramesar said. He said that was a clear indication that Gibbs and Ramesar were "not minded to listen to what was happening." He added: "It appears that Gibbs was more minded to take a top-down approach to management rather than a bottom-up approach which is the recommended way to go because the bulk of the organisation is at the lower level, at the Second Division level," Ramesar said. Plans were on stream to introduce the project in Northern Division within the next three weeks, it was stated.
Given the "glaring cracks" in the initiative, Ramesar said it would be disastrous to expand the project to another division.He said: "The problem in Western Division needs to be fixed first. I think they want the project to work by the 'hook or the crook' and they want to appear to be doing something." He asked: "The fact of the matter is should the commissioner and his deputy decide to leave tomorrow is only then we would see all the problems that exist?
"I am very concerned that these two persons may make a mess and leave it for us to clean," Ramesar said.
He said the problems of poor management plaguing Western Division was a direct result of ignoring the concerns of the association "at an early stage." Asked to rate Gibbs' performance to that of former acting Police Commissioner James Philbert, Ramesar said Philbert "had his time," adding he was not prepared to make a comparison. "But," he said, "Mr Philbert had his own shortcoming and Mr Gibbs has his own shortcoming. They are two different commissioners under two different tenures." Complaints have been levelled against Gibbs that he has not as been interactive with "ground officers" as when Philbert was in office.
Citing this as a management style, Ramesar, however, said: "I certainly recognize that the morale of officers is improved by commanders engaging with them at ground level. "If the commissioner does not recognize that's part of the culture of Trinidad and Tobago, interaction of top management with lower management, then he is missing an opportunity to improve his standing in the eyes of our police officers." Regarding the state of negotiations, Ramesar said officers were "looking on" but were adamant that the five per cent wage increase was unacceptable. Ramesar, who met with the Chief Personnel Officer Stephanie Lewis yesterday, said the three-hour session "went well." He said negotiations regarding allowances were almost completed.
The next stage, he said, was to negotiate the salary increase. "We are willing to compromise. We will definitely not accept the five per cent. We have proposed 40 per cent but we are willing to settle at 25 per cent," he added.
ewatski responds
When told he was accused of being a non-performer Ewatski said: "I am not going to dignify that accusation with a comment."