Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher is ex­pect­ed to re­ceive an of­fi­cial let­ter from the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion to­day say­ing that her sus­pen­sion was lift­ed, paving the way for her to lead the po­lice ser­vice.

This is ac­cord­ing to chair­man of the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion.

Hare­wood-Christo­pher did not show up at the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing yes­ter­day to re­sume du­ties.

Con­tact­ed by Guardian Me­dia, Hare­wood-Christo­pher con­firmed she did not go to her of­fice.

“I have yet to hear from the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion. That is all I have to say.”

Yes­ter­day, Guardian Me­dia was out­side the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing but was told by of­fi­cers that Hare­wood-Christo­pher was not ex­pect­ed to be there.

On Mon­day, High Court Judge Christo­pher Sieuc­hand found that her sus­pen­sion by the PolSC was le­gal. The rul­ing came af­ter the com­mis­sion’s at­tor­ney, Deb­o­rak Peake, SC, said her sus­pen­sion was lift­ed af­ter the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions, Roger Gas­pard, SC, said there was in­suf­fi­cient ev­i­dence against her in­volv­ing the pro­cure­ment of two sniper ri­fles for the Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency (SSA). The de­vel­op­ments paved the way for the Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er to re­sume her du­ties.

How­ev­er, chair­man of the PolSC, Dr Wen­dell Wal­lace, con­firmed the let­ter lift­ing Hare­wood-Christo­pher’s sus­pen­sion was not is­sued as of yes­ter­day morn­ing. He said the let­ter should be de­liv­ered in “due course.”

“We are hop­ing it will be de­liv­ered some­time to­day or ear­ly to­mor­row (Wednes­day) morn­ing.”

Wal­lace said sep­a­rate let­ters would al­so be pre­pared for act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Ju­nior Ben­jamin, whose sub­stan­tive rank is that of a Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (DCP), and act­ing DCP Op­er­a­tions Curt Si­mon, whose rank is that of an As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (ACP).

“So when that let­ter goes out to Mrs Hare­wood-Christo­pher, lift­ing the sus­pen­sion, then two oth­er let­ters would have to be sent, in­di­cat­ing that those two gen­tle­men would have to re­vert to their orig­i­nal po­si­tions.”

If Hare­wood-Christo­pher of­fi­cial­ly re­sumes her du­ties as head of the TTPS to­day, it will take place just one day be­fore her con­tract as Com­mis­sion­er ends. On Thurs­day, May 15, she turns 62, which brings her one-year ex­ten­sion to a close.

Wal­lace said he did not an­tic­i­pate any chal­lenges, par­tic­u­lar­ly with the pace at which of­fi­cers re­turn to their sub­stan­tive roles.

“The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice is a dis­ci­plined or­gan­i­sa­tion and what­ev­er has to take place, they will have to work that out in­ter­nal­ly.

“I can’t make pro­nounce­ments on what will or will not hap­pen, but I can say they (the Po­lice Ser­vice) are a dis­ci­plined or­gan­i­sa­tion and it is ex­pect­ed that they will act in ac­cor­dance with their rules, reg­u­la­tions and the hi­er­ar­chi­cal struc­ture.”

On Mon­day, Hare­wood-Christo­pher and her at­tor­ney were at the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing, Sackville Street, be­fore at­tend­ing a meet­ing with Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Roger Alexan­der at his of­fice at Tem­ple Court, on Aber­crom­by Street.

Ben­jamin will­ing to serve T&T

Mean­while, act­ing CoP Ben­jamin said he would con­tin­ue with his work lead­ing the po­lice ser­vice, un­til he re­ceives a let­ter from the PolSC in­struct­ing him to re­turn to his du­ties as DCP.

Asked if he was pleased with the work done dur­ing his tenure, Ben­jamin said while the pub­lic would have their own opin­ion on his lead­er­ship, he felt he did “his best,” cit­ing dif­fer­ent polic­ing ini­tia­tives in­tro­duced dur­ing the State of Emer­gency (SoE), the Carif­ta Games and this year’s gen­er­al elec­tion.

As of yes­ter­day morn­ing, there were 140 mur­ders for the year so far, com­pared to 204 for the same pe­ri­od in 2024.

“We look at the vi­o­lent crime re­duc­tion, which shows a 29 per cent re­duc­tion and wound­ings and shoot­ings show a 30 per cent or 31 per cent re­duc­tion.

“Those things we were able to do with­in a three-month pe­ri­od. It’s for so­ci­ety and the na­tion to judge how my tenure has been, but I will say I have done my very best and will con­tin­ue to do my very best to put sys­tems in place to en­sure the prop­er run­ning of the po­lice ser­vice.”

When asked if he was pre­pared to con­tin­ue act­ing as Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er when Hare­wood-Christo­pher’s con­tract ends and a suc­ces­sor is not named, Ben­jamin said he was com­fort­able serv­ing in “any area” to en­sure the na­tion’s safe­ty.

“What­ev­er ca­pac­i­ty giv­en to me, I re­main fo­cused and do my very best to en­sure that I serve the na­tion so that at the end, T&T will win.”

Guardian Me­dia con­tact­ed DPP Gas­pard on whether he was sat­is­fied with how the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to Hare­wood-Christo­pher was con­duct­ed.

How­ev­er, he de­clined to com­ment, say­ing it would be “im­politic” to do so.