00:00The Police Service Commission has been told to rescind their decision forthwith to suspend
00:06the Commissioner either here with Christopher or face judicial review proceedings.
00:11In the ongoing TopCorp debacle following her arrest and then her release last Saturday
00:16related to the importation of two sniper rifles connected to the SSA, Senior Counsel Pamela
00:22Elder sent a pre-action protocol letter on behalf of the Commissioner to PSC's Chairman
00:27Dr. Wendell Wallace today demanding that they withdraw the letters sent to her client
00:32and to the President of Trinidad and Tobago asking that DCP Benjamin's name be put forward
00:37as Acting Commissioner.
00:39Referring to communication from DCP Suzette Martin to the PSC on January 30th, she pointed
00:44out that no particulars of the alleged misbehavior outlined by Martin's letter was set out
00:49in the PSC's letter to her client.
00:52SC Elder indicated,
00:54Our client's arrest was not effected pursuant to a warrant issued by a judicial officer.
00:59Accordingly, such an arrest could only have been made where the arresting officer had
01:03reasonable cause for suspecting that our client was guilty of committing an arrestable offence.
01:11Senior Counsel Elder told the PSC that in their correspondence to her client, they never
01:16stated that they were informed of the name of the arresting officer.
01:20And the reasonable grounds for a suspicion that our client was guilty of the offence
01:25of misbehaving in public office.
01:27In the absence of this critical and necessary information, it is alarming that an independent
01:32commission exercised its constitutional powers to suspend our client, the Commission of Police.
01:39Senior Counsel Elder was especially critical of the Police Service Commission, saying that,
01:44We contend that the PSC was required to request, obtain, and carefully assess the material
01:50which afforded reasonable grounds for suspicion before suspending our client.
01:55Without such material, no impartial, independent, fair, just, and or lawful decision to suspend
02:02could have been made.
02:04The absence of such material raises concerns as to whether the decision to suspend was
02:09made on extraneous factors.
02:12Elder also touched on the issue of fairness and Regulation 152 of the Police Service Regulations,
02:18Speaking to the suspension of officers below the rank of DCP where a relevant officer must
02:24have committed an offence, Senior Counsel Elder said her client should be afforded the
02:28same treatment.
02:31As a result, the PSC's decision to suspend in the aforesaid circumstances is shocking,
02:38unlawful, and ultra-varies the constitutional powers of the PSC.
02:43As an independent and impartial body charged with the responsibility of protecting the
02:47rights of our client, it was unlawful for the PSC to suspend the COP without having
02:53before it any material whatsoever from which it could independently and impartially assess
02:59the evidence, if any, against our client.
03:03Senior Counsel Elder gave the Police Service Commission until 2pm tomorrow to rescind the
03:07Commissioner's suspension or face judicial review proceedings.
03:12Mark Besant, TV6 News.
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