(Trinidad Express) Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley yesterday questioned both the independence of the Police Service Commission and objectivity of the yet unnamed incoming Commissioner of Police following the resignation of Commissioner of Police Dwayne Gibbs and Deputy Commissioner of Police Jack Ewatski yesterday.
Rowley, speaking to reporters after the People’s National Movement “Zante PNM” Emancipation Day celebrations at Balisier House on Tranquility Street, Newtown, also questioned the role of National Security Minister Jack Warner in the sudden dual resignations.
“The Commissioner of Police must be seen to be operating at arms length from the wishes of the political directorate,” Rowley said.
“If there is any occasion when there is a Commissioner of Police in office who can be perceived to be the creature of the political directorate, it would be whoever is coming in now after this development,” he said.
“I am concerned about the details and there is a whole lot more that we have to hear from the Government,” he said.
“I am particularly keen to hear from the Police Service Commission,” he said, saying he believed their independence was being threatened by the Minister of National Security.
“I found the conduct of the Minister of National Security to be out of line with respect to the office of Commissioner of Police. I though the Minister of National Security was indicating that he was exercising an authority which he does not have under the Constitutional arrangements,” he said.
“These are political developments to respond to the crime wave in the country,” he added.
Rowley recalled that the last time the political directorate took such an initiative was during the State of Emergency, which was announced in August last year, and continued until December 5.
“And it had precious little effect on the crime wave,” he said.
The Opposition Leader said he was “concerned” that in the absence of an “independent” Commissioner of Police, “we may be in a worse state that we were when we started”.
“This is not a matter of politics, it is matter of procedure and respect for office and arrangements in place and independence of offices,” he said,
Rowley said the country was right back to 2010, except now everything that was expected to happen, did not.
