New chairman of the Police Service Commission Professor Ramesh Deosaran says his first priority is to demand answers from Commissioner of Police Dwayne Gibbs on his performance to date. Deosaran said he intended to meet with Gibbs as early as Monday. Deosaran said so in his first interview after taking the oath as member and chairman of the commission at Knowsley, Queen's Park West, yesterday. The oath was administered by acting President Timothy Hamel-Smith in a three-minute ceremony. Hamel-Smith told Deosaran that he had a heavy weight on his shoulders as the new chairman of the commission.
Deosaran, in a break from tradition, addressed the ceremony, saying he would do his best to execute the mandate of the PSC during his three- year term. The ceremony was witnessed by other members of the commission-Jacqueline Cheessman, Addison Khan, Kenneth Parker and Martin George. Deosaran was accompanied by Nirmala Deosaran, Gerard Besson and Shalin Barran. Later in the interview with reporters, Deosaran said his motto would be fairness, accountability and results. "I intend to go very far," he added.
Deosaran said at his meeting with Gibbs he would be asking several questions, including:
• What has happened to the civilianisation of the Police Service?
• Has that system collapsed?
• What are the civilians in the Police Service doing?
Deosaran said Gibbs must say "how successful his 21st century policing was going to be, in terms of results, which is beyond public relations and slogans and so on."
He said Gibbs would also have to convince the commission that his policing was based on:
• scientific principles driven by hard data with results that will satisfy the country; and
• make the country feel that it is business now to ensure public safety and security.
Deosaran said he intended to do "an assessment of the commissioner's work. "He has been here for over six months and he should have prepared a report for the first six months of his service," he added. Deosaran said he "will like to make an assessment of his (Gibbs') service, his duties, his functions and what results have been accrued so far." Deosaran said it should be noted "quite seriously" that the Police Commissioner had been given "complete powers to manage the Police Service, so we will ask him as a commission, 'How has he been exercising that power.'" Deosaran, a criminologist and former Independent senator stressed: "What I am trying to tell you is that the commission means business...I mean business, accountability, fairness and results."
He said the Police Service "will be facing a new wave of accountability." Asked if he was satisfied with Gibbs' performance to date, Deosaran said: "That satisfaction will come by next week when I have an assessment of the records and the report he has shown...I want the hard data before me." He added that he had a "personal view" of Gibbs' performance but he wanted that to be "validated by the evidence from his report and the assessment I will make next week." Deosaran said based on the new laws and regulations governing the service, "if there is gross dissatisfaction with the Police Commissioner-as you implied-based on hard evidence there is one option the commissioner will have to choose and one option which the commission will have to undertake." He later clarified, saying that if there was repeated evidence that the Police Commissioner was not performing, the law provides "that he should no longer hold office." Deosaran said another of his priorities was to deal with the corrupt officers in the service.