President of the Police Service Social and Welfare Association Sgt Anand Ramesar has called the unexplained decision to re-deploy seven police officers from the Marabella-based Crime Suppression Unit (CSU) as insensitive, untimely and a "devastating blow" to a morale within the service that is "already low". Speaking with the Sunday Guardian last week, Ramesar, who admitted to not having an "intimate knowledge of the issue", said he would like for the seven displaced officers to air their grievances to him since, from where he sat, their situation was of "a very serious" nature.
"I certainly invite the seven officers to come to the Association's office, let me hear from them clearly what their concerns and their suspicions are because it is something I would consider to be a breach of employment in terms of the welfare of the officers," he said. Ramesar added: "You don't just take people and transfer them. You must have some reasonable cause or there must be some clear direction. "Transfers are not something you just do willy-nilly because 'I am in charge'. It must make sense and achieve some specific purpose."
Last Sunday, in a story reported exclusively by the Sunday Guardian, it was revealed that of the 25 CSU officers from the South, Central and South Western Divisions combined, seven of them-representing the total number of officers from the Central and South Western Divisions save one-were re-deployed to their substantive CID designations without "justifiable" cause. A source close to the police said the decision to re-deploy the officers occurred at a meeting on October 7, where the Assistant Commissioner of Police for South/Central Divisions, Fitzroy Frederick, informed the Unit of such move which became effective October 10.
When asked by the Sunday Guardian, what his reasons were for the re-deployment, Frederick said he did "not have to tell" the media why, since the CSU was under his remit and he had "a mandate to run the Divisions as (he) sees fit." The source added that the officers were demotivated as a result of the shift and hinted at the intention of the senior officers, "to purge the remaining 18 officers or have the unit disbanded altogether." Ramesar said he believed there was "some level of micro management involved" in this scenario since transfers within the Divisions "should have been done by the Senior Superintendent" and not the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Frederick). "I think that this is clearly a high-handed approach and it reeks of something more that is not apparent at this time," he quipped.
