JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Monday, July 28, 2025

Griffith: Be cautious against unfounded allegations against cops

by

1438 days ago
20210819
Acting Police Commissioner Gary Griffith.

Acting Police Commissioner Gary Griffith.

Act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith has warned cit­i­zens to be cau­tious in mak­ing un­found­ed al­le­ga­tions against po­lice of­fi­cers.

Grif­fith said he has not­ed in re­cent days an un­for­tu­nate up­surge on so­cial me­dia of “mis­lead­ing and damn­ing al­le­ga­tions with no ev­i­dence, aimed at se­nior po­lice of­fi­cers, which ques­tion their cred­i­bil­i­ty.”

He said he be­lieves that it is be­cause of the on­go­ing as­sess­ment and the se­lec­tion process for the post of Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, “where­by it seems that cer­tain in­di­vid­u­als, in­clud­ing a few re­porters, may have a pref­er­ence or even a dis­taste for cer­tain ap­pli­cants, and are hence push­ing sto­ries and even show­ing to the pub­lic, the ques­tions be­ing asked, in an ob­vi­ous at­tempt to as­sist cer­tain ap­pli­cants, or to dis­cred­it oth­ers.”

“The old­est trick in re­port­ing is to ask ques­tions, then make it known to the pub­lic, hence try­ing to per­suade oth­ers that the ques­tions asked can be fac­tu­al, hence dis­cred­it­ing the in­di­vid­ual re­gard­less of what com­ment he/she makes,” Grif­fith said.

He not­ed that be­fore it is per­ceived that he is try­ing to pre­vent free­dom of speech, he as­sured that noth­ing is fur­ther from the truth, and any­one is free to print what­ev­er they feel about him.

How­ev­er, he added that in his ca­pac­i­ty of present­ly lead­ing the Po­lice Ser­vice, it is his du­ty to de­fend his of­fi­cers if tar­get­ed un­fair­ly.

“I have seen ar­ti­cles, ac­cu­sa­tions, and re­ports, with ques­tions aimed to dis­cred­it oth­er ap­pli­cants and even those who did not ap­ply. I kind­ly ask that we all take a deep breath, step back, and un­der­stand that this does not as­sist the Po­lice Ser­vice by dis­cred­it­ing any­one be­cause of your in­ter­est in the process of the ap­point­ment of the COP,” Grif­fith said.

“Cer­tain damn­ing al­le­ga­tions have been made on so­cial me­dia at cer­tain se­nior of­fi­cers, some of whom have ap­plied, and oth­ers, who have not ap­plied for the post, and I wish to state that there is not a shred of ev­i­dence to sup­port such claims,” he added.

Grif­fith said the se­lec­tion process for the CoP is not a po­lit­i­cal cam­paign, “so char­ac­ter as­sas­si­na­tion of those you do not sup­port is not part of the process, and un­for­tu­nate­ly, some are treat­ing it as such, which does noth­ing to build the morale of the TTPS, nor build pub­lic trust and con­fi­dence when se­nior of­fi­cers are ac­cused and tar­get­ed un­fair­ly.”

“Where­as in po­lit­i­cal cam­paigns, char­ac­ter as­sas­si­na­tions can be the norm be­cause af­ter an elec­tion, politi­cians on ei­ther side of the fence do not have to work to­geth­er. It is the op­po­site in this process for the ap­point­ment of a Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er. Smear cam­paigns to dis­cred­it one of­fi­cer be­cause of your pref­er­ence for an­oth­er, cer­tain­ly does not help, as these same of­fi­cers must work to­geth­er to pro­tect and serve the pub­lic. So un­war­rant­ed char­ac­ter as­sas­si­na­tion of se­nior of­fi­cers, makes it dif­fi­cult for the Po­lice Ser­vice to work as a team, as there is go­ing to be a day af­ter the Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er is ap­point­ed, and who­ev­er that it may be, such un­for­tu­nate com­ments do not help in build­ing the im­age and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty of the Po­lice Ser­vice,” Grif­fith said.

He has asked all to be very cau­tious in their state­ments, as they “bor­der on mak­ing pub­lic state­ments of on­go­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions, which can be per­ceived as con­tempt of court.”


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored