The de­ci­sion by the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion to ex­tend the act­ing ap­point­ment of the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, Stephen Williams, for a fur­ther six months is a dis­ap­point­ing out­come to a process that the com­mis­sion ought to have en­gaged a long time ago to en­sure that there would be sta­bil­i­ty in the ap­point­ment of a com­mis­sion­er.

On Ju­ly 31, 2012, the T&T Guardian re­port­ed that "Cana­di­an-born T&T Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Dwayne Gibbs and his com­pa­tri­ot Deputy Com­mis­sion­er Jack Ewats­ki have re­signed with more than a year of their three-year con­tracts re­main­ing. Their res­ig­na­tion let­ters were dat­ed Ju­ly 26, 2012, and they take ef­fect on Au­gust 7.

The Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion is to ap­point an act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice and act­ing Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice. Sources say cur­rent Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Stephen Williams will act as Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er."Af­ter 18 months, the PSC is still grant­i­ng ex­ten­sions to act­ing CoP Williams in­stead of mov­ing with dis­patch to en­gage the is­sue, hav­ing re­gard to the crime prob­lem that the coun­try faces.

The un­cer­e­mo­ni­ous de­par­ture of Messrs Gibbs and Ewats­ki was por­trayed as a so­lu­tion to the crime prob­lem in many quar­ters. At the time, the new Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, Jack Warn­er, seemed to con­vey to the pub­lic that the 21st-cen­tu­ry polic­ing pro­gramme that CoP Gibbs and DCP Ewats­ki were pi­lot­ing was in­ad­e­quate. The im­pres­sion was cre­at­ed that with a na­tive-born Com­mis­sion­er, the coun­try would have the so­lu­tion to its crime prob­lems.

http://www.guardian.co.tt/dig­i­tal/new-mem­bers