Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

The re­cent ar­rest and de­ten­tion of Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher, along with the role of law en­force­ment lead­er­ship in T&T, have be­come cen­tral top­ics of pub­lic dis­cus­sion.

On Jan­u­ary 31, Hare­wood-Christo­pher was ar­rest­ed and de­tained as part of an on­go­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the im­por­ta­tion of two sniper ri­fles by the Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency (SSA).

The for­mer di­rec­tor of the SSA Ma­jor Roger Best was al­so de­tained in con­nec­tion with the probe.

Fol­low­ing Hare­wood-Christo­pher’s, the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion is­sued a di­rec­tive in­struct­ing her to “cease to re­port for du­ty and cease to dis­charge the du­ties of Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice.”

Mean­while, Se­nior Coun­sel Pamela El­der, rep­re­sent­ing Hare­wood-Christo­pher, has threat­ened le­gal ac­tion.

Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed res­i­dents in crime-af­fect­ed or “hot spot” ar­eas to gath­er com­mu­ni­ty per­spec­tives on these de­vel­op­ments and their po­ten­tial im­pact.

Opin­ions were di­vid­ed on whether the sit­u­a­tion would im­pact the po­lice ser­vice’s abil­i­ty to car­ry out its du­ties dur­ing the State of Emer­gency in ar­eas like Mor­vant and Laven­tille.

In Mor­vant, res­i­dent Eliz­a­beth John ex­pressed con­cerns about the po­ten­tial im­pact on law en­force­ment.

“I be­lieve the po­lice in this area do their du­ty and their work. They are al­ways present, and I think this sit­u­a­tion will af­fect them,” she said.

How­ev­er, a res­i­dent of Laven­tille dis­agreed. “No, no, I don’t think it will af­fect them be­cause she brought this up­on her­self. Most like­ly, I don’t think it will have an im­pact,” he said.

An­oth­er Mor­vant res­i­dent added, “Yeah, it could af­fect us. You see what’s hap­pen­ing right now; if the com­mis­sion­er is fac­ing prob­lems and there’s no guid­ance, we could have some is­sues.”

A Laven­tille res­i­dent em­pha­sised the se­ri­ous­ness of the sit­u­a­tion, “She is the one who gives the po­lice their work. Life out here is se­ri­ous—very se­ri­ous. She needs to know what she is do­ing.”