For­mer head of the Pub­lic Ser­vice, Regi­nald Du­mas, says while the ap­point­ment of a T&T na­tion­al as com­mis­sion­er of po­lice may have some ben­e­fits, it will not nec­es­sar­i­ly cause any sig­nif­i­cant re­duc­tion in crime. Du­mas spoke in a tele­phone in­ter­view with the T&T Guardian yes­ter­day, hours af­ter the Ju­ly 26 res­ig­na­tions of Cana­di­an-born Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Dwayne Gibbs and his com­pa­tri­ot, Deputy Com­mis­sion­er Jack Ewats­ki, were made pub­lic.

It takes ef­fect on Au­gust 7. The Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion is ex­pect­ed to make ap­point­ments to act in the po­si­tions, pend­ing its se­lec­tion of per­ma­nent ap­pointees to be ap­proved by Par­lia­ment. "Putting a lo­cal per­son has its ben­e­fits, I don't de­ny that, but it is not a panacea for all ills," said Du­mas.

Gibbs' 21st-cen­tu­ry polic­ing plan did not have the ap­proval of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er. Du­mas said no crime plan can be suc­cess­ful­ly im­ple­ment­ed with­out the ac­tive sup­port of the wider na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty. He said he was not aware of any meet­ing be­ing held in To­ba­go to dis­cuss the 21st-cen­tu­ry ini­tia­tive with the peo­ple on the is­land.

"A new com­mis­sion­er will have to re­late more to the com­mu­ni­ty, be­cause if peo­ple feel they are part of the so­lu­tion, they would be more like­ly to give in­for­ma­tion to the po­lice, which would lead to the solv­ing of crime," Du­mas said. Du­mas said cit­i­zens may feel "more com­fort­able" with a lo­cal of­fi­cer at the helm be­cause he may have a bet­ter un­der­stand­ing of the cul­ture of T&T.

Du­mas, a for­mer Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary to the Prime Min­is­ter, said more was still need­ed in the fight against crime, in­clud­ing mod­ern tech­nol­o­gy and a high­er de­tec­tion rate. Du­mas al­so spoke of the pos­si­bil­i­ty of fall­out from the au­thor­i­ties in Cana­da over the res­ig­na­tion of Gibbs and Ewats­ki. He said, how­ev­er, it ap­peared as though a spe­cial arrange­ment was made for Gibbs and Ewats­ki to be giv­en a "nice pack­age" as an in­cen­tive to re­sign.