Noble: The Business, the Hothead and the Preacher—the problem with the TTPS

It is folly for us to be absorbed with the issue of the sniper rifles and not address the more significant problem of crime. The rifles are not missing.

Our appreciation of how much our security forces are struggling with the criminal developments that plague us is our business. The news about the arrest of our Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher consumes us and makes it appear to be our biggest headache. Taking care of crime is our business.

Dana Seetahal presciently noted our problems with taking care of our business. She remarked: “The Special Anti-Crime Unit (Sautt), not being accountable to any law enforcement organisation, may, in some ways, be considered a law unto itself, and is open to be utilised as a ‘political tool’ of the government of the day, which spawned its creation.” (The emphases are mine.)

The Kamla Persad-Bissesar’s administration introduced different plans. She justified this: “This needs to be totally restructured as it is a powerful tool which can be used to reduce crime but has failed due to improper use of resources.”

Persad-Bissessar said intelligence divisions needed overhauling. She noted several intelligence agencies kept information apart from each other, leading to duplication and not working together as they should.

Political turf wars disrupted the proposed revamping. The legislation to legalise the National Intelligence Agency took more than two years. The start of the NIA’s operations was pushed back on more than one occasion, and the agency saw two directors come and go even before it was officially established.

The internal squabble between key players spattered into the papers.

“This ongoing relationship completely undermines the authority of the director of the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) or the new director general of the NIA, as this person is unable to control the flow of information that passes from Browne, the SSA’s Deputy Director to (official’s name called).

“The source said it was one that cripples the decision-making of the director or director general, as he is placed in an uncomfortable position.”

Julie Browne was the person who recommended the infamous Reshmi Ramnarine for the SSA job. Gary Griffith was then the interim director. A ‘political tool’ of the government of the day!

By April 2012, the assets once owned by SAUTT were being distributed. Griffith said it was decided to take those assets/vehicles, weapons and communications equipment and re-distribute them to agencies with identified shortages, such as the Police Service, the Prisons Service, Customs and the Immigration Department.

There was no mention of such assets going to the SSA.

The personnel troubles continued.

In 2016, after the debate to amend the legislation governing the SSA, Thane Pierre, a local lawyer, noted: “Most of the people who are entrusted to make laws to govern the citizens of T&T are completely out of their depth, and they are neither afraid nor ashamed to showcase this with utter contempt.”

He pointed out that “law enforcement agencies are grappling with more complex crimes such as gang-related violence, terrorism, human trafficking, money laundering and other transnational crimes that require a high level of expertise.”

Pierre opined that due to the wanton disbanding of SAUTT, the national security apparatus lost vital intellectual and institutional capabilities.

In short, we have been lackadaisical about creating and bolstering institutions that tackle crime throughout our recent history.

In this gap, we witnessed the notorious Brent Thomas case. Mr Thomas was, at the time, a firearms dealer.

On 29 September 2022, police officers armed with a warrant went to Thomas’ home and placed him under arrest. On 2 October 2022, Justice Avason Quinlan-Willi­ams ordered his immediate release after his attorneys filed a writ of habeas corpus since no charges had been brought against him since the arrest.

Following his release, Thomas left Trinidad for Miami, USA, via Barbados to receive medical treatment. With only another warrant from a Justice of the Peace, the local police sought to arrest him with the collaboration of the Royal Barbados Police Force.

There was no apparent consultation with the Director of Public Prosecution, neither did the Attorneys-Generals of both countries confer. Yet, a light aircraft subsequently linked to the Regional Security Services (RSS) was on hand to ferry Mr Thomas back to Trinidad.

Barbados was quick to apologise for their actions. But the burning question remained. “We do not know who is truly responsible for this ghastly deed.” A law unto itself?

But we do know that no commissioner of police in Trinidad and Tobago has the authorisation to allow any police officer to leave this country and to go out of our waters without the approval of the government.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley is on record as denying any knowledge of the deed. Would Minister Fitzgerald Hinds, the National Security Chief, or Minister Colm Imbert, the other senior minister on the National Security Council, have dared to do this?

Even Harewood-Christopher ordered an investigation based on the issues raised. The hothead, the supervising police officer, was Suzette Martin.

Mr Thomas won compensation for the breaches of his constitutional rights and his illegal arrest and detention. He also has a good chance of having his case stayed. The public lost.

Fast forward to Dr Rowley’s April 2024 statement to Parliament about actions taken with the SSA. It should be noted that the Special Branch triggered the action.

The Prime Minster brought home the ambassador to Washington to do this job of overhauling the SSA. Therefore, he deemed this domestic issue more compelling than the service being done in Washington.

Did his meetings with US military officials at the Pentagon in Washington and with William Burns, director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), at Langley, Virginia, also trigger the urgent action?

What would concern the Americans? Were they concerned with the items enumerated by Dr Rowley? Not being accountable to any law enforcement organisation?

The recommendation was that “the head of the SSA be replaced immediately and that new leadership and management be installed with dispatch.” The immediate focus is “initiating an extensive review and audit of all personnel, equipment and processes within the SSA”.

Dr Rowley reported that in 2017, the SSA purchased 8,000 rounds of 9-millimetre (mm) ammunition, but, by 2022, the amount purchased during that year was 100,000 rounds!

The use/ whereabouts of 70,000 rounds of ammunition purchased by the SSA remains unrecorded and unaccounted for.

In 2016, the SSA held 24 firearms, consisting of pistols or revolvers. By 2021, the number of weapons held by the SSA increased to 103, of different types and calibre, including military grade.

“Prior to that legal November 2023 authorisation, the National Security Council of the Government was not aware that the SSA possessed those levels of arms and ammunition or that the SSA was actively engaged in extensive weapons training, procuring and consuming large volumes of ammunition.

“There was never a budget in the SSA to purchase military-grade weapons, nor was the NSC ever informed of any such activities or that such capabilities were being developed within the SSA.”

Not being accountable to any law enforcement organisation?

It is galling to hear Griffith casually admit that, as commissioner, he would purchase equipment and pass it on to other agencies. The SSA audit indicates an inability to account for the inventory correctly. He admitted that he could designate anyone to be an SRP and give them guns.

How could this be? In the Senate, Minister Hinds reported that the SSA reports to the National Security Council chairman (Rowley) bimonthly and meets with Hinds monthly.

How did Minister Hinds not know what was going on? Did the Police Commissioner and SSA Head not inform him? A law unto itself?

Dr Rowley noted: “Several members of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service were involved in the lucrative business side of the acquisition and training of civilians, and this introduced several risks, including the manipulation of the process for personal gain, as well as serious matters of conflict of interest.

“Some citizens confirmed paying firearm dealers for services in the award of Firearms User’s Licences (FULs). Certain members of the TTPS and some firearms dealers were charging large sums of money for successful applications for FULs.”

He added: “A Firearm Import Permit was issued to the owner of a company in Port of Spain, who was granted permission to import 15,000 rounds of training ammunition, “on behalf of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service.”

Investigations later revealed that this person is not a Licensed Firearm Dealer.” A law unto itself?

How did we get to a place where the Commissioner of Police is arrested in what appears to be another half-baked approach to policing? Were no lessons learnt after the Thomas matter?

Or does our hothead, Ms Martin, consider the DPP’s advice optional? Will we, the public, pay for her intemperance?

Did Ms Martin forget the need for counselling after the Brent Thomas matter? Why does she or the Preacher (Junior Benjamin) believe that morale in the Police Service will be healed quickly?

The Preacher should acknowledge that prayer is not magic. God is not our genie in a bottle. We should not expect God to answer every prayer or whim. To “declare and decree” is to dishonour God. It comes from theological error.

Are Dr Rowley’s hopes of a fruitful police investigation into all the matters misplaced? Can we trust the Police Service when they handle investigative affairs in this shoddy manner?

Will Ms Martin get another promotion for her hotheadness? Will our Police Service act as a law unto their selves? Will we continue to pay for unforced errors?

We deserve better.