Richard?Lord

Un­der the new process for the ap­point­ment of a com­mis­sion­er of po­lice and deputy com­mis­sion­er the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion will have to con­tract a lo­cal firm un­der the Cen­tral Ten­ders Board Act to con­duct the re­cruit­ment process, which in­cludes invit­ing ap­pli­ca­tions for the posts.

This is ac­cord­ing to the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice and Deputy Com­mis­sion­er (Se­lec­tion Process) Or­der 2015, which was tabled in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives yes­ter­day by Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Ed­mund Dil­lon.

It was one of two or­ders re­cent­ly ap­proved by Cab­i­net for the se­lec­tion of the top po­lice of­fi­cers.

This has come about af­ter the ex­ist­ing sys­tem, which re­quires an in­ter­na­tion­al firm to do the same work, has been de­scribed as in­ef­fec­tive for the ap­point­ment of the of­fi­cers.

Stephen Williams has been act­ing as Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice since 2012, when the last con­firmed po­lice com­mis­sion­er Dwayne Gibbs was re­moved.

The or­der says the firm shall sub­mit a short­list of suit­able can­di­dates for con­sid­er­a­tion.

Un­der the law the Par­lia­ment will seek to ap­prove or re­ject the nom­i­nees.

The Ap­point­ment of a Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice and Deputy Com­mis­sion­er (Qual­i­fi­ca­tion and Se­lec­tion Cri­te­ria) Or­der 2015 was al­so laid by Dil­lon. That or­der says the nom­i­nees must be na­tion­als of T&T and have a de­gree from a recog­nised uni­ver­si­ty in the field of law, crim­i­nal jus­tice, crim­i­nol­o­gy, po­lice ser­vice man­age­ment or oth­er rel­e­vant de­gree.

It says the can­di­date for CoP must have at least 15 years ser­vice of in­creas­ing re­spon­si­bil­i­ty in law en­force­ment and the can­di­dates for deputy com­mis­sion­er must have ten years ser­vice in the same area.

The Par­lia­ment will sub­se­quent­ly have to ap­prove the nom­i­nees and the ap­point­ments made by the Pres­i­dent.