The Op­po­si­tion Leader says the Prime Min­is­ter has no one else to blame but him­self for the cur­rent cri­sis fac­ing the Po­lice Ser­vice, fol­low­ing the non-ap­point­ment of a sub­stan­tive Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er, and the fir­ing of scores of civil­ian con­tract em­ploy­ees in ad­min­is­tra­tion.

In a strong­ly word­ed state­ment, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar SC MP lays the buck square­ly at the feet of the Row­ley Ad­min­is­tra­tion for the un­cer­tain­ty tak­ing place in the Po­lice Ser­vice, and warns that over­all cit­i­zen se­cu­ri­ty and safe­ty is at stake as a di­rect re­sult.

The fol­low­ing is the full state­ment is­sued by the Op­po­si­tion Leader on the mat­ter, this morn­ing…

The news that 2,800 po­lice of­fi­cers are now left in lim­bo con­cern­ing their pro­mo­tions and ap­point­ments is a dis­as­ter that con­cerns all cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go. This cri­sis is a tick­ing time bomb that jeop­ar­dizes the en­tire sta­bil­i­ty of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice at a time when crim­i­nals ter­rorise cit­i­zens more brazen­ly each pass­ing day. 

This cri­sis was cre­at­ed by the scan­dalous col­lapse of the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion, which is en­tire­ly the mak­ing of this Kei­th Row­ley led gov­ern­ment. This col­lapse has pre­vent­ed the ap­point­ment of a Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er for the first time in our na­tion’s his­to­ry, lead­ing to this ad­min­is­tra­tive and se­cu­ri­ty dis­as­ter.

I re­mind the coun­try that it was Kei­th Row­ley who flip­pant­ly de­clared that “Sergeants can con­tin­ue Sergeant­i­ng” with­out a Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er. Per­haps Row­ley wish­es to ex­plain to these 2,800 Po­lice Of­fi­cers who ex­act­ly will now tend to their pend­ing pro­mo­tions and ap­point­ments?  Kei­th Row­ley's neg­li­gent ac­tion to­wards the TTPS bor­ders on crim­i­nal be­hav­iour and can on­ly serve to fur­ther de­mor­alise an al­ready frus­trat­ed TTPS.

I am al­so con­cerned that con­tract em­ploy­ees hired un­der for­mer Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith have been fired. If there is no Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er, who is ex­act­ly now hir­ing and fir­ing per­sons at the TTPS? 

The man­ner in which the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion col­lapsed is al­ready a scan­dal of the high­est or­der, for which Row­ley re­fus­es to take re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. Now it ap­pears Row­ley is pur­pose­ful­ly lead­ing the en­tire Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice down the path to a sim­i­lar col­lapse.

As long as this Row­ley-led PNM gov­ern­ment stays in of­fice, the safe­ty, se­cu­ri­ty and sta­bil­i­ty of cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go re­main un­der threat.