Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley yes­ter­day added his voice and his sup­port to the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice’s dri­ve to have all po­lice of­fi­cers un­der­go poly­graph tests.

“We want a fu­ture that if a po­lice of­fi­cer car­ries that ti­tle and he wears that uni­form, young peo­ple must be able to con­fi­dent­ly say that that of­fi­cer is some­one I can de­pend on to be hon­est, to be un­cor­rupt­ed and to be there to pro­tect and serve the peo­ple of T&T,” he said.

Row­ley was ad­dress­ing the large gath­er­ing at the PNM’s an­nu­al sports and fam­i­ly day in Hor­quet­ta yes­ter­day.

He said of­fi­cers must be able to with­stand scruti­ny and an­swer ques­tions with­out fear.

“And that is why to­day, what­ev­er the cir­cum­stances, what­ev­er is re­quired, we the peo­ple must be able to say to the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, we sup­port you in go­ing for poly­graph tests to erode cor­rup­tion in the po­lice ser­vice,” Row­ley said.

Grif­fith, in me­dia re­leas­es and me­dia re­ports over the past few months, tout­ed the ben­e­fits of the reg­u­lar poly­graph test­ing.

He said then that the test­ing of Spe­cial Re­serve of­fi­cers was ex­pect­ed to start soon and that it was part of his plans to trans­form polic­ing and en­sure greater ac­count­abil­i­ty.

In oth­er me­dia re­ports, Grif­fith ac­knowl­edged that po­lice of­fi­cers were in­volved in il­lic­it ac­tiv­i­ty in­clud­ing smug­gling of il­le­gal drugs, weapons and sex work­ers.

“This is a coun­try where we take every­thing for grant­ed. As if we don’t par­tic­i­pate in it, if we do not stand up in prin­ci­ple for it, it will hap­pen just,” he said.

“Our par­ty is well or­gan­ised and that is why af­ter 63 years we are the pre­dom­i­nate po­lit­i­cal en­ti­ty in T&T and I dare say the Caribbean,” he said.

He said it was im­por­tant to have events like sports and fam­i­ly day to in­clude young peo­ple and for them to feel in­clud­ed.

“We in this coun­try take a lot for grant­ed, to our per­il,” he said.

Grif­fith was get­ting re­sis­tance from the new­ly elect­ed pres­i­dent of the Po­lice and So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion In­spec­tor Gideon Dick­son.

Dick­son said that the tests should not be done un­til the or­gan­i­sa­tion met with the Com­mis­sion­er.

Row­ley al­so said that young peo­ple must de­mand hon­esty in pol­i­tics.

He named no names but ref­er­enced a “pub­lic of­fi­cer” fac­ing bribery charges yet still be­ing al­lowed to run a pub­lic of­fice and han­dling pub­lic mon­ey.

“If it is that is what they are of­fer­ing you as your fu­ture, I ask you to re­ject it,” he said.

“The cor­rupt must not run this coun­try. The thieves must not run this coun­try, whether they are in the po­lice ser­vice, the cus­toms or wher­ev­er they are, we are go­ing to change this coun­try,” he said.

He said a new so­ci­ety must en­sure that pub­lic of­fi­cers are act­ing prop­er­ly.

He said the same goes for po­lice of­fi­cers.

He said when­ev­er a rev­enue stream was lost, we have to en­sure we still have enough to sur­vive.