RYAN BA­CHOO

The He­li­co­nia Foun­da­tion for Young Pro­fes­sion­als has con­grat­u­lat­ed Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher on her ap­point­ment as the first fe­male Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

A re­lease on Sun­day morn­ing stat­ed:

"This ap­point­ment is a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone in the coun­try's law en­force­ment and a clear demon­stra­tion of the progress be­ing made to­wards gen­der equal­i­ty and di­ver­si­ty in lead­er­ship po­si­tions."

The foun­da­tion said Hare­wood-Christo­pher's ap­point­ment fol­lows in the foot­steps of oth­er na­tions such as Aus­tralia, Cana­da, and the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca, who al­so have ap­point­ed fe­male po­lice com­mis­sion­ers, show­ing a grow­ing trend to­wards di­ver­si­ty and in­clu­sion in the po­lice force.

"The He­li­co­nia Foun­da­tion has high ex­pec­ta­tions for her lead­er­ship, par­tic­u­lar­ly in pro­mot­ing com­mu­ni­ty polic­ing, re­duc­ing crime, and fos­ter­ing a cul­ture of ac­count­abil­i­ty and trans­paren­cy with­in the po­lice force," the re­lease stat­ed.