Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith’s warning to officers who bring the T&T Police Service into disrepute is yet another good sign that he is committed to being a change agent within the service.
During a forum hosted by the Chaguanas Chamber of Commerce yesterday, Griffith was again given examples of misbehaviour in public office by those under his charge from members of the public. Having perhaps also heard similar complaints via his personal info hotline, the CoP has signalled his intention to work with the Police Complaints Authority on such issues and, more importantly, to begin to punish officers found in violation.
But this newspaper has said before that all of this talk from Griffith will come to naught unless he has both the support of his executive and the Police Social and Welfare Association in carrying out these disciplinary exercises on the one hand and the public in highlighting instances of infractions on the other.
Similarly, he must have this type of support to eradicate the crime problem currently plaguing the country. Case in point, murders continue unabated. In other words, even with the best of intentions, Griffith will not solve the disciplinary issues within the service anytime soon and the same can be said for his ability to curb the rising tide of crime since that is directly correlated to the behaviour pattern of society as a whole.
Still, Griffith continues to send good signals regarding the future operations of the service.
PoSGH must do better on security
The ease with which an individual was able to walk into the Port-of-Spain General Hospital and drive out with a critical piece of machinery on Thursday is yet the latest incident showing the brazenness with which the criminal element is now operating.
However, outside of this it again highlighted the lack of rigorous security systems in place at many of our nation’s medical institutions—a situation which is linked to the poor management practices at some of these and other state-run entities.
Specifically, as it relates to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital, this is not the first time that the criminal element has targeted the facility and with success at that. We have previously seen incidents where gun-toting criminals ran into wards shooting at their adversaries.
The ease with which the thief used a fake ID to dupe the security on hand to gain access to the vehicle this time suggest a major lapse in security protocols. Luckily, this time around the mobile unit which was stolen did not have any critical equipment because it was not to be used on that particular day.
The North West Regional Health Authority dodged a bullet this time but we hope they revisit the security systems they now have in place at the institution.