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CCNTV6
  • 2 years ago

Commissioner of Police Earla Christopher defends the TTPS's decision to send high ranking officers on leave. She gives the nation the commitment that anti-crime initiatives will not be compromised by the absence of such officers.

Transcript
00:00 Top cop Erla Christopher defends the TTPS's decision to direct senior officers to proceed
00:07 on leave for lengthy periods, many exceeding one year.
00:11 She calls it a crucial and necessary investment to improve the overall performance of the
00:16 TTPS.
00:17 In a statement issued on Thursday, Christopher says hers is the office constitutionally charged
00:23 with effectively managing the TTPS's resources.
00:27 She says the conflict between the demand for services and the need to effectively deploy
00:33 often limited resources required deliberate and careful management to achieve a healthy
00:38 balance.
00:39 Among the officers sent on leave, Senior Superintendent of Police Roger Alexander, a correspondence
00:45 floating online dated October 27, directed him to proceed on 212 compensatory and 561
00:55 vacation days leave.
00:57 This means he is expected to be off duty from January 1, 2024 to November 2026.
01:04 The Commissioner points to the current challenge to "battle an undesirable high incidence of
01:10 crime while having to maintain an adequate, competent and effective complement of the
01:15 TTPS's human resources on a sustained and protracted basis."
01:21 At the same time, the statement says the organization is in an "untenable situation of having many
01:28 officers working continuously over very extended periods with excessively high vacation leave
01:34 entitlements in many cases."
01:37 She says this is in excess of two and three years.
01:40 Christopher says, "This situation is detrimental to both the officer and the organization as
01:46 it presents the potential for issues related to health and welfare and work-life balance
01:51 and possibilities of diminishing returns for the officer and loss of efficiency and effectiveness
01:58 in operations for the organization and is simply not a viable position."
02:05 Former Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith weighs in.
02:08 What I find very curious is just two months ago in August also because of the crime surge
02:13 she stated that no one is to go on leave.
02:15 So what caused the goalposts to have shifted where just a few months ago no police officer
02:19 could have gone on leave and now just a few months later we are seeing very senior officers
02:24 who hold very strategic positions going on leave for several months if not years.
02:29 So what has caused the goalposts to shift?
02:31 I shudder to think it is because of any personal issues pertaining to the senior officers that
02:36 may cause this.
02:37 But again it is the call of the Commissioner of Police.
02:40 Commissioner Christopher says to mitigate the risk and liability of excessive vacation
02:45 leave entitlements, the TTPS has implemented a policy to schedule the leave of officers
02:50 to use parts of their leave on a phased and controlled basis but she says they will be
02:56 available to be recalled if the circumstances so warrant.
03:01 This may require the transfers of officers to fill vacant positions which the top cop
03:06 says will be done prudently and to ensure the best fit of officers to deliver maximum
03:12 results.
03:13 The TTPS sought to assure the public that it is aware of the level of policing the current
03:18 crime situation warrants and its anti-crime initiatives will not be compromised by officers
03:24 proceeding on leave.
03:26 One of those initiatives is the calling out of 100 Defence Force Reserves which the former
03:31 top cop says is no novel idea.
03:35 Let me clarify the members, these 100 persons are not going to actually be on the ground.
03:40 They are there to go into the army camps, hold the camps, secure the camps so that the
03:45 regular officers from the Toronto and Tobago Regiment will be able to come out and join
03:49 the Toronto and Tobago Police Service in their patrols.
03:52 The unfortunate thing is it is amazing that we have criminologists and members of the
03:55 big business sector welcoming this as this is a major crime plan.
04:00 This is standard operational proceeding that has been done for several years.
04:03 It is a cut and paste document.
04:05 Christopher says she looks forward to welcoming the re-energized officers back on duty.
04:11 Meanwhile, as members of the public question the future of the TV6 Beyond the Tape show
04:16 for which co-host Senior Superintendent Alexander has become popular, the management of TV6
04:22 says the show which is sponsored by the TTPS is carded to continue as they have not received
04:28 any directive from the police service.
04:30 Arvishi Tiwari, Rupnarayan, TV6 News.
04:33 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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