The decision by the executive of the Police Service to remove from inspectors in charge of police stations the power to conduct roadblocks and place it in the hands of the divisional heads following Monday's total policing gridlock was hasty and ought to be revisited.
The suggestion comes from head of the Police Service Social and Welfare Association Insp Anand Ramesar, whose officers have been blamed for the gridlock for most of Monday morning.
Speaking with the media after a meeting with the Chief Personnel Officer Stephanie Lewis yesterday over their ongoing wage negotiations, Ramesar said he met with the police executive but the decision was never discussed.
At a press conference on Monday acting Police Commissioner Ann Marie Alleyne-Daly ordered that only divisional heads could order roadblocks and apologised to the nation on behalf on the police.
She said the executive was clueless on the roadblocks and had it known before hand it would have moved to stop it.
She added that an investigation, which would take two weeks to be completed, was ongoing to determine if any officer breached the police regulations on Monday.
"At the end of the day divisional heads are not the real workers in any of the divisions. The workers are the inspector. They are the ones who first receive intelligence and carry out operations.
"For us, I think the decision was a bit hasty and I think it needs to be revisited," Ramesar said, adding that Alleyne-Daly needed to look at the Police Service Regulations Act and the acting Commissioner Stephen Williams' strategic crime plan and police culture before making the order.
"What I want to say is that it is a decision which should not have been made at this particular juncture. The public is listening and to know that police cannot carry out roadblocks today and not in the near future should have been dealt with internally and in the ear of TTPS only not a public statement" Ramesar said.
He said coming out of yesterday's meeting the association was no where closer to settling its negotiations, given that the CPO had not budged from her position of a ten per cent increase.
The association is requesting a 19 per cent wage increase using seven other institutions, including the Airports Authority and the rank of ASP in the authority as its bargaining comparators.
The combined average, the association maintains, was a 24 per cent wage increase and is asking for 80 per cent of that.
The removal of the rank of ASP in the Airports Authority is effectively reducing the combined average increase to 16.4 per cent with an offering of 60 per cent from the State, which equates to a ten per cent wage increase.