The House of Representatives meets today amid a high level of uncertainty surrounding the position of Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher.
Harewood-Christopher, who has been suspended, has been told by the Police Service Commission (PolSC) that she must “cease to report for duty and cease to discharge the functions of the office of Police Commissioner”.
However, Harewood-Christopher has challenged this and up to last night, her attorneys were in the process of preparing to file for judicial review of the PolSC’s decision.
Harewood-Christopher’s attorney, Senior Counsel Pamela Elder, in a pre-action protocol letter dated February 3, had given the PolSC until 2 p.m. yesterday to rescind the suspension or else legal action would be initiated against the PolSC.
The 2 p.m. deadline came and all that happened was that the PolSC acknowledged receipt of the pre-action protocol letter yesterday.
The PolSC’s directive to Harewood-Christopher to cease to report for duty therefore stands.
If Harewood-Christopher’s attorney files for judicial review today and the matter is heard in an emergency hearing by 1.30 p.m. and she is granted injunctive relief, then the PolSC would be unable to proceed with her suspension.
This would render the motion to approve the nomination of Junior Benjamin as acting Commissioner of Police and the nomination to appoint Curt Simon as acting DCP irrelevant and of no use, and the action of the Parliament in considering such a motion otiose.
But as it stands now, the House will convene to debate two motions —to approve the Notification of the President of the nomination by the PolSC of Junior Benjamin to act in the office of Commissioner of Police and the Notification of the President to approve the nomination by the PolSC of Curt Simon to act in the office of Deputy Commissioner of Police.
Both notifications have been triggered by the decision of the PolSC to suspend Harewood-Christopher and the need to appoint an acting commissioner.
Commenting on the situation yesterday, former House speaker Nizam Mohammed, a former chairman of the PolSC, said: “This is a kind of awkward situation. This issue is a novel one, but one has to consider the supremacy of Parliament.”
He said what the Parliament will be considering is the Notification of the President.
“If the court rules in favour of the commission, in the face of what Parliament is about to do or what it would have done today, the clumsiness is just compounded. But it still remains the prerogative of the Parliament to proceed as planned [with today’s sitting].
“Parliament is doing what Parliament has to do, Harewood-Christopher’s lawyers are doing what they have to do, and the PolSC is doing what it has to do. But in the meantime, the dark clouds of this entire situation keep hovering over the country,” Mohammed said.
Mohammed said he took note of the fact that although the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) came under the microscope last March and the issue of the SSA’s acquisition of firearms was under scrutiny, the Government extended Harewood-Christopher’s term of office by one year in May 2024 for the second time.
He also raised the question of why the T&T Police Service did not get in touch with the PolSC once Harewood-Christopher became a subject of interest, so that the PolSC could have made a decision that she be sent on administrative leave and let the acting CoP and the DCPs attend to the matter at hand (her arrest), rather than have junior officers arresting their boss.
“Something in that is clumsy. It is a frightening thing that has happened,” he added.
