It is not only in filling vacant senior positions that there are unacceptable and unexplained delays. The slow pace of investigations into the murder of senior counsel Dana Seetahal is a cause for concern. More than six months after Ms Seetahal's death, her killer has not been arrested and there has been no concrete progress in the inquiry.
Crime is still out of control and is by far the biggest challenge facing this country. The list of murders, the overwhelming majority of them never solved, continues to grow. The slow pace of investigations into several high-profile cases, including at least two drug-trafficking incidents that put T&T under an unflattering international spotlight, are indicators of the sorry state of national security.In this dire situation, then, it defies logic that there are so many longstanding vacancies in or connected to the entity on the frontlines of crime-fighting–the Police Service.To date, no acceptable explanation has been given for why the process of appointing a police commissioner has been allowed to drag on for so long. In fact, to add insult to injury, the search for a new top cop is now–again–at a complete standstill because the Police Service Commission (PSC), which is in charge of that process, is without a chairman.
Bafflingly, there seems to be no sense of urgency on the part of the relevant authorities to do anything about it.No one in authority seems bothered either by the fact that there isn't even the slightest hint of a replacement for former PSC chairman Prof Ramesh Deosaran, who handed in his resignation to the President some two months ago, in early August. Since Prof Deosaran's consequent departure on September 1, the PSC has been without a head or a quorum, unable to make any progress in filling the long-vacant position of CoP.If the length of time the PSC has been without a chairman is alarming, consider the fact that Stephen Williams has been acting as Commissioner of Police since August 7, 2012, since the resignation of Canadian Dwayne Gibbs.
When Mr Gibbs left office, the PSC promised to have the position "filled permanently in the earliest possible time."It is totally unacceptable that more than two years have passed and the only noticeable activity from the PSC on that matter has been to extend Mr Williams' acting appointment at six-monthly intervals.Then there was the September 2 resignation of Gillian Lucky as director of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA)–yet another agency critical to the efficient functioning of the police service, where Ms Lucky seemed to have stirred up and speeded up activity, but which is now in a holding pattern because of this unfilled vacancy at the very top.
It is not only in filling vacant senior positions that there are unacceptable and unexplained delays. The slow pace of investigations into the murder of senior counsel Dana Seetahal is a cause for concern. More than six months after Ms Seetahal's death, her killer has not been arrested and there has been no concrete progress in the inquiry.Another glaring example of law enforcement failure currently attracting a great deal of attention is the case in which a surgeon at a private hospital failed to report that he had removed cocaine pellets from a patient's stomach in an emergency operation. To the dismay of many, charges have not been laid against a single person involved in that underhand process. Given all these scenarios, it is not surprising that there are major crime initiatives that, to the dismay of the National Security Minister, can't get off the ground. How can they, when very basic and critical matters of governance of the police service have been neglected for so long?