After 52 years of independence the powers that be have failed to halt the growing escalation of crime which is clearly symptomatic of a decaying society resulting no doubt from neglect and/or failure to address endemic and pervasive socio-economic conditions and deteriorating societal norms and values.
When T&T became a Republic in 1976 the Constitution provided for a Public Service Commission, a Judicial and Legal Service Commission, a Police Service Commission and a Teaching Service Commission as independent and impartial bodies with power to make appointments and promotions to the respective services and to exercise disciplinary control over members of those departments.
Those Services were intended to be politically neutral in the performance of their functions and as a consequence the respective Commissions were accordingly insulated from political influence, patronage or posturing or interference in the exercise of the powers conferred on them.
However, successive governments had from time to time attributed the escalation of crime largely to the failure of the Police Service Commission (PSC) to effectively and efficiently manage the Police Service, a conclusion which was not only misleading but an erroneous interpretation and/or a manifest misrepresentation of the constitutional role and function of the then PSC.
In 1993, the then government called on the then PSC to retire the Commissioner of Police but the grounds proffered for so doing were vague and devoid of relevant evidential material, as a result of which the Commission did not accede to the request.That decision, however, precipitated the laying of a Bill in Parliament to amend the Constitution to replace the then PSC by a Management Authority, but the Bill never saw the light of day since its passage required the support of the Opposition.
That, however, was not an end of the matter since the government tabled another Bill and yet another the purport and intent of which was to subject the PSC to political control.
The last Bill ultimately received the support of the Opposition as a result of which the Constitution was amended to provide for: (a) a new PSC whose members were to be appointed by the President but subject to the approval of the House of Representatives; (b) empowered the PSC to nominate and appoint persons to the offices of Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of Police subject to the approval of the House of Representatives and to terminate their services for cause; and (c) to entrust the management of the Police Service to the Commissioner of Police.
Since the Constitution provides that the appointment of members of the PSC and the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner are to be made by the President and the PSC respectively subject to the approval of the House of Representatives, it may not be unreasonable to conclude that the party with the majority in the House would determine the people to be appointed to those offices and to directly or indirectly exercise some degree of political influence or control over them.
Further, both the President and the PSC would appear to be conduits for the forwarding of proposals to the House of Representatives and rubber-stamping instruments for making appointments.
The role and function of the Police have always been confined to crime detection, law enforcement and maintaining the peace and, in the execution of those functions, they are the servants of no one but the law.
The question, however, who manages the Police Service has been made abundantly clear by the Constitution which provides that the Commissioner shall have the complete power to manage the service while the PSC, the Cabinet and the Minister of National Security have the overall responsibility for an efficient and effective Police Service.
The Commissioner is therefore no longer a "toothless bulldog" as was alleged by a former Commissioner but this notwithstanding there looms widespread dissatisfaction over the low level of discipline and performance by the police.
Some of the factors contributing to this malaise may well be attributed to an anachronistic management culture, the prolonged acting appointment of the Commissioner as well as the making of promotions to other ranks on the basis of interviews rather than performance, a mechanism or process which was abolished by the former PSC and endorsed by the Privy Council. Empirical evidence has established that interviews are fraught with favouritism, partiality, discrimination and political influence.
Moreover, the astronomical cost and convoluted mechanism for the selection of a firm (such as the Penn University) to identify a suitable candidate for the appointment of a Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner would appear to be a clear admission that after 52 years of independence there is a dearth of people in T&T with the requisite intelligence, training and experience to select persons who may be deemed fit and proper for an appointment to any those offices.
The facts and circumstances upon which the amendment of Sections 122 and 123 of the Constitution was predicated and the imbroglio resulting therefrom could have been inspired more by political expediency, puerility and irrationality rather than logic or reason.
Indeed the politicisation of the police service may well be a precursor to or foreboding of the abolition of other Commissions such as the Judicial and Legal Service Commission and its replacement by one which could only make appointment of judges with the approval of the House of Representatives or the executive.
Such precipitous decisions would clearly lead to the emasculation of the rule of law and democracy as has been done in many jurisdictions.
Kenneth R Lalla SC