00:00Former Police Commissioner Gary Griffith isn't mincing words.
00:05He says political interference in law enforcement is inevitable,
00:09but insists that returning the Anti-Corruption Investigations Bureau
00:13to the Office of the Attorney General is not just the best option, it's the only one.
00:20Griffith says while the unit was under the police service,
00:24several high-profile investigations were deliberately stalled
00:27and, in some cases, sabotaged, especially those involving politicians.
00:33He believes that placing the Bureau under the Attorney General's office
00:38will finally allow for checks and balances
00:40and help ensure that justice is not derailed by political influence.
00:46Whether you put it under the police service, there can still be political manipulation
00:50because the officers involved can deliberately stall the investigation
00:55just to protect those persons who they politically support.
00:59And on the other side of the spectrum, we can look at the Mark Hernandez situation
01:03where a senior police officer who benefited from my removal
01:07Harkley appointed 30 police officers to go on a fishing expedition
01:13in the hope that he can find something on Mark Hernandez,
01:15frame a charge on him, and now the taxpayers are going to have to pay millions to Mark Hernandez.
01:19He also cited a past example of political interference involving current minister
01:25and deputy political leader of the United National Congress, David Lee,
01:29who was detained by police officers on Tuesday following a warrant issued by the High Court.
01:35Because it happened to me, even this David Lee matter,
01:38as a commissioner, I can't go into detail, but a politician called me,
01:42Gary, I have files, I have documents, I'll send it to you now to arrest David Lee.
01:45That is the kind of madness that we have in this country.
01:48It's a banana republic country where politicians feel that because I was influential
01:52and appointed you as commissioner of police, you need to go to the direction that I will tell you to go.
01:58Separately, Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander is moving to shake up the country's prison system
02:04with plans to bring in the defense force to keep watch inside and outside the nation's jails.
02:10It's part of a push to clamp down on riots, contraband smuggling, and misconduct behind prison bars.
02:18But former police commissioner Gary Griffith says the plan is nothing new,
02:23as he implemented it during his tenure as commissioner.
02:26What I think the president commissioner and others did is they tried to take the mountain to Mohammed
02:31by taking the prisoners and send them across to Stobel's Bay.
02:34No, you send the soldiers across into the prisons because part of the role and function of the
02:39Trinidad Tobago Defense Force is an aid to civil power, whether it be to support the police or the prison service.
02:44Ahead of next Monday's budget, and with the state of emergency ongoing, Griffith says,
02:50Protective Services are looking out for new policies, technologies, and new systems to strengthen the country's security.
02:58Because after the SOE, these same shooters are now going to go back out,
03:02which is going to happen very soon because you can only hold this for six months.
03:06And then when that happens, these guys are going to be very aggressive and they're going to retaliate.
03:11We need to prepare for that retaliation by having the proper systems, units, technology,
03:16and the political will to make Trinidad Tobago safe.
03:19Nicole M. Romany, TV6 News.
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