Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day ap­proved Deputy Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er (DCP) Ju­nior Ben­jamin to act as Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er lat­er this month and As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Anand Rame­sar to act as DCP.

How­ev­er, the Op­po­si­tion Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) op­posed Rame­sar’s ap­point­ment, cit­ing a 2012 dis­ci­pli­nary mat­ter in which he was found guilty.

Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der pi­lot­ed the no­ti­fi­ca­tions for both act­ing ap­point­ments in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. All Gov­ern­ment MPs vot­ed in favour of Rame­sar, while the eight PNM MPs present vot­ed against. The mo­tion was passed.

Op­po­si­tion Whip Mar­vin Gon­za­les said the Op­po­si­tion could not sup­port Rame­sar’s ap­point­ment.

“We can­not sup­port it in or­der to pro­tect the peo­ple. We must en­sure that those we put in pub­lic of­fice are suit­able and well qual­i­fied,” Gon­za­les said.

Ben­jamin will act dur­ing the up­com­ing ab­sence of Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­is­ter Gue­var­ro, who is to at­tend the In­ter­na­tion­al As­so­ci­a­tion of Chiefs of Po­lice’s an­nu­al con­fer­ence and ex­po­si­tion in Or­lan­do, Flori­da, from Oc­to­ber 22-28. Rame­sar will act as DCP while Ben­jamin serves as act­ing com­mis­sion­er.

Alexan­der said the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PolSC) sub­mit­ted both rec­om­men­da­tions to Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo in ac­cor­dance with the or­der of mer­it list. The Pres­i­dent sub­mit­ted the no­ti­fi­ca­tions to Par­lia­ment on Sep­tem­ber 23.

He said Ben­jamin had served in the po­lice ser­vice for 37 years and was no stranger to the com­mis­sion­er’s post. This will be the third oc­ca­sion on which he has act­ed as com­mis­sion­er. Alexan­der de­scribed him as a well-round­ed of­fi­cer with ex­ten­sive ex­pe­ri­ence, knowl­edge and qual­i­fi­ca­tions, in­clud­ing cer­ti­fi­ca­tion as a poly­graph ex­am­in­er.

Alexan­der said Rame­sar had served in the TTPS for 34 years and was qual­i­fied to act as DCP.

“He’s qual­i­fied and well-round­ed. He’s worked in dif­fer­ent ar­eas in the TTPS and has re­ceived train­ing with­in the ser­vice and out­side it. He’s ful­ly qual­i­fied to hold this post tem­porar­i­ly un­til Mr Ben­jamin’s re­turn [to the DCP post],” Alexan­der said, while list­ing Rame­sar’s qual­i­fi­ca­tions.

Gon­za­les said the PNM sup­port­ed Ben­jamin’s ap­point­ment but re­ject­ed the rec­om­men­da­tion for Rame­sar. He said fol­low­ing a state of emer­gency and the in­tro­duc­tion of new leg­isla­tive mea­sures giv­ing the TTPS ex­tra­or­di­nary pow­ers, the Op­po­si­tion had a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to en­sure ap­point­ments to the of­fices of Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er and DCP pro­tect­ed the pub­lic.

“It’s not a rub­ber-stamp­ing ex­er­cise,” he said.

Gon­za­les said he had ex­pect­ed Alexan­der to out­line Rame­sar’s achieve­ments and suit­abil­i­ty to act as DCP. In­stead, he said, the min­is­ter did not men­tion re­ports that Rame­sar had been found guilty of se­ri­ous in­ter­nal dis­ci­pli­nary of­fences.

“Is the min­is­ter aware of this very se­ri­ous mat­ter that pur­port­ed­ly is against this can­di­date’s record? And if now be­ing made aware, does he con­tin­ue hold­ing the po­si­tion that this can­di­date is suit­able to func­tion in the of­fice of DCP?” Gon­za­les asked.

He cit­ed an Oc­to­ber 12, 2012, me­dia re­port in which Rame­sar, then head of the Po­lice So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion, said a dis­ci­pli­nary tri­bunal’s guilty ver­dict and sen­tence had made him stronger.

Rame­sar had been pe­nalised for un­der­tak­ing pro­fes­sion­al work with­out the com­mis­sion­er’s per­mis­sion, as well as for false­hood and dis­cred­itable con­duct.
The of­fences arose from an Oc­to­ber 3, 2011, in­ci­dent at the Scar­bor­ough Mag­is­trates’ Court, where Rame­sar pro­vid­ed le­gal rep­re­sen­ta­tion to a po­lice of­fi­cer charged with mis­con­duct in pub­lic of­fice for al­leged­ly rent­ing out his ser­vice firearm.

Rame­sar re­ceived a 36-day salary de­duc­tion for the charges brought against him.

An­oth­er re­port said Rame­sar had ar­gued that the in­ter­nal charges should not hin­der his chances of lead­ing the TTPS. He re­port­ed­ly want­ed to ap­peal the judg­ment but ac­cept­ed the pun­ish­ment be­cause an ap­peal could have de­layed his pro­mo­tion from sergeant to in­spec­tor.

Gon­za­les said the pub­lic need­ed to have trust and con­fi­dence in the TTPS.

“I ask the min­is­ter if this is the same can­di­date he’s of­fer­ing to act in the of­fice of DCP and if the Gov­ern­ment is firm that Mr Rame­sar is suit­able,” he said, be­fore re­ject­ing the rec­om­men­da­tion.

Gon­za­les said the PNM con­sid­ered Ben­jamin suit­able to act as com­mis­sion­er. He not­ed that Ben­jamin had served in the role dur­ing a pe­ri­od when mur­ders fell by 31 per cent, adding that the Gov­ern­ment should not take sole cred­it for the re­duc­tion.

Alexan­der replied that the PolSC had in­ter­viewed can­di­dates qual­i­fied to act as DCP and placed Rame­sar on the or­der of mer­it list. He added that peo­ple could be pro­mot­ed de­spite mi­nor in­frac­tions.

“If one un­der­stood the TTPS, you’ll un­der­stand why peo­ple are pro­mot­ed even when there’s a very mi­nor in­fringe­ment,” he said.