Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs has failed to carry out his mandate to reduce crime and boost public confidence. This was the view of president of the Police Service Social and Welfare Association, Sgt Anand Ramesar, who commented on the top cop's one year in office. "After a year in office, we are at the same position we were a year ago and maybe a little worse in terms of how the Police Service is moving forward," he said in a phone interview yesterday. According to Ramesar, the mere fact that a state of emergency was declared by the Government was a reflection of Gibbs' inefficiency.
"The remit in terms of responding to criminality in the country falls directly on the commissioner and his deputies and the decision to have a state of emergency, really for me, demonstrates no confidence in what they are doing," Ramesar said. He also criticised the 21st Century Pilot Project which was introduced in Western Division in April and is expected to be implemented in other model stations. "They keep talking about 21st crime plan initiative but that played no part in the state of emergency," he said. He said after serving one year as Police Commissioner, Gibbs had "fallen way below" the association's expectation.
"And compensation must be tied into performance," Ramesar said."It's not about what they should have done differently...it's a clear case that they were given a job to do and they have not done it." He described the changes implemented by Gibbs as merely "cosmetic dressing," saying it brought no real value to the Police Service. "There is a total breakdown in the Police Service," he added. He said there was "total breakdown" in the relationship between the executive of the Police Service and the association. "That relationship has degenerated severely because of the commissioner's unwillingness in a lot of instances to treat with a lot of issues that would affect morale...That relationship is at an all-time low," Ramesar said. He charged that since Gibbs assumed office, he blatantly neglected his charges.
"One needs to recognise that as police officers in Trinidad and Tobago, we are human beings, we have emotions, we have an expectation for equality of treatment, we expect that if he's going to treat one particular police officer in a particular way, then persons who are in similar circumstance should be treated similarly," Ramesar said. He said there was also a "failing" disciplinary system within the Police Service, despite "sufficient tools" allocated to Gibbs."The commissioner would have been given sufficient tools to implement a disciplinary system that would have impacted positively," he said.