On March 23, there was a mutiny in the Police Service, in which one particular person or a small group of junior officers with "clear leadership qualities" commanded and motivated the majority of officers to hold the country to ransom without the knowledge of the hierarchy of the Police Service.
These were the general sentiments expressed at yesterday's Joint Select Committee session as acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams appeared, to answer questions on the "Total Policing" exercise report which was laid in Parliament on April 17.
The session seemed to raise more questions than answers, however, as the investigating officer, ACP (North West) Vincel Edwards, said he could not determine who specifically gave the ultimate directive for the operation.
"Throughout the investigation I interviewed a number of persons and there were a number of roadblocks throughout the East-West corridor. In each area there were different officers who supervised or granted permission to do those exercises.
"The ultimate order in itself, I just could not find that ultimate person," Edwards said.
The nationwide operation crippled all transportation in the country and resulted in millions of dollars of revenue being lost as businesses were forced to halt operations.
In his contribution, National Security Minister Carl Alfonso said, "It is a bit frightening and I don't want to sound panicking because I don't panic easily...it sounded as though there is this junior person...it is not the deputy commissioner, it is not the acting commissioner...was able to effectively pull off this exercise.
"That is something that we must be concerned about. I am very concerned that such a thing happened and such a thing could again happen. Some junior officer took control of the entire place. That action in another place is called mutiny. It certainly needs to be addressed and somebody needs to be punished."
In his report, Edwards described the actions of the officers as being "maliciously obedient."
Asked why the officers acted that way, he said, "My mandate was to find the cause and I looked at a number of factors, including the concept that there was some industrial action and I really did not find the evidence to conclude that it was industrial action.
"What I found was the officers basically said they were conducting a total policing day. My conclusion was that they acted maliciously in conducting the total policing day.
"In reality that is not how the concept works but that was how they acted. I could not pinpoint the exact reason why they acted in that manner.
"They claimed they were conducting a total policing day. When I looked at the concept the action did not fall within that concept," Edwards said.
Asked why his charges took this course of action, Williams said he had many opinions, adding, "Posing your opinions on matters can be sometimes misleading, can create added conflict and added confusion. As a trained attorney I always rely on seeking out the evidence."
Williams was out of the country at the time the action occurred and acting DCP Ann-Marie Alleyne-Daly was acting as commissioner.