One day af­ter the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice was or­dered to dis­con­tin­ue a de­part­men­tal or­der used to as­sess po­lice of­fi­cers for pro­mo­tion, Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher pro­mot­ed 25 po­lice of­fi­cers.

Hare­wood-Christo­pher pro­mot­ed four of­fi­cers to the rank of se­nior su­per­in­ten­dent and 21 to the rank of su­per­in­ten­dent on Wednes­day.

On Tues­day, High Court Judge West­min James or­dered that the de­ci­sion of the Com­mis­sion­er’s Of­fice and the Pro­mo­tion Ad­vi­so­ry Board (PAB) to utilise De­part­men­tal Or­der 93 of 2021 in the as­sess­ment and pro­mo­tion of of­fi­cers from con­sta­bles to cor­po­rals was un­law­ful, il­le­gal, ir­ra­tional, pro­ce­du­ral­ly im­prop­er, null, void and of no ef­fect. He al­so chas­tised both the PAB and Com­mis­sion­er’s Of­fice in de­lay­ing the pro­mo­tion of of­fi­cers for some 14 years.

The judg­ment came af­ter some 30 of­fi­cers filed a law­suit against the CoP and the PAB af­ter they were by­passed for pro­mo­tion.

While most of the of­fi­cers were pro­mot­ed be­fore the judg­ment was giv­en, James or­dered that those who were not be com­pen­sat­ed for loss of earn­ings, as they ar­gued they could have been pro­mot­ed twice and were close to re­tire­ment.

In a re­lease is­sued on Wednes­day by the TTPS, Hare­wood-Christo­pher con­grat­u­lat­ed the of­fi­cers who she de­scribed as the “cream of the crop” and en­cour­aged them to ex­cel in their new ranks.

“While we con­grat­u­late you, and cel­e­brate your suc­cess, there is an im­por­tant mes­sage that must not be lost on the oc­ca­sion, and that mes­sage is sim­ply that this mo­ment is as much about you as it is about the or­gan­i­sa­tion, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice,” she told the of­fi­cers.

She re­mind­ed the of­fi­cers that with the high­er rank, their lev­el of re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and lead­er­ship must be com­men­su­rate with the pro­mo­tion.

“You can­not as­sume a high­er rank and not un­der­stand the more oner­ous role you must play. You can­not as­cend the ranks but as­sume di­min­ished re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. To­day, you move in­to very se­nior ranks, ranks where you must lead and do so with ut­most in­tegri­ty. Every one of you must rapid­ly get to the point where you as­sume per­son­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for do­ing what needs to be done, work­ing as if the suc­cess of the TTPS de­pend­ed on you alone.”

She told the of­fi­cers their pro­mo­tion comes as the coun­try is fac­ing an un­ac­cept­able wave of law­less­ness, which presents an un­prece­dent­ed chal­lenge for the TTPS.

The top cop en­cour­aged the of­fi­cers to rid the po­lice of rogue of­fi­cers.

“We must pre­serve our in­tegri­ty and main­tain our le­git­i­ma­cy, rid­ding the TTPS of er­rant of­fi­cers bent on bring­ing the or­gan­i­sa­tion in­to dis­re­pute,” she said, adding that the pub­lic de­mands bet­ter of them and they must de­liv­er.