To­day is of­fi­cial­ly the last day in of­fice for Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher as her con­tract comes to an end. But she has not yet re­ceived her Let­ter of Reap­point­ment fol­low­ing the lift­ing of her sus­pen­sion.

Mrs Hare­wood-Christo­pher was ar­rest­ed over an al­leged in­volve­ment in the pro­cure­ment of two sniper ri­fles for the Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency (SSA).

On Sat­ur­day, the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) found that there was not enough ev­i­dence to se­cure a con­vic­tion against the top cop.

Head of the Po­lice Ser­vice’s So­cial & Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion (TTPS-SWA), ASP (Ag) Gideon Dick­son, says in lieu of the re­in­state­ment let­ter, there is a prece­dent that can be fol­lowed—where oth­er of­fi­cers were sus­pend­ed pend­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tion—to en­sure that the Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er leaves of­fice with­out los­ing any ben­e­fits.

“They [those oth­er of­fi­cers] were suc­cess­ful in their mat­ters and had to get back in­to or be rein­te­grat­ed in­to the work­place, and they have leave and their manda­to­ry [re­tire­ment] age is up­on them,” the po­lice union boss ex­plained. “[The sus­pen­sion] is lift­ed just around this time so that they would be able to still have all their ben­e­fits to which they were en­ti­tled, and pro­ceed on what­ev­er leave they would have ac­crued while [un­der] sus­pen­sion … and they weren’t able to be on the job­site.”

With­out any in­di­ca­tion that the con­tract of the Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er will be ex­tend­ed, and giv­en the ab­sence of the of­fi­cial let­ter, ASP (Ag) Dick­son says DCP Ju­nior Ben­jamin con­tin­ues at the helm of the Po­lice Ser­vice.

“As it is, the per­son in charge [of the Po­lice Ser­vice] would have to be the per­son who was last or­dained by the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion,” he points out, “and that is Mr Ju­nior Ben­jamin.”

Mean­while, chair­man of the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion Dr Wen­dell Wal­lace, has in­di­cat­ed that Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher is ex­pect­ed to re­ceive the of­fi­cial no­tice lift­ing her sus­pen­sion at some point to­day.

Mrs Hare­wood-Christo­pher turns 62 years on Thurs­day, May 15, 2025.