Tread carefully on probe, Mr Guevarro

Editorial

4 Hrs Ago

THE ANNOUNCEMENT of another police investigation into a high-ranking officer, so soon after the Erla Harewood-Christopher scandal, is deeply unsettling. Top cop Allister Guevarro acknowledges his social contract with citizens and should be praised for committing to transparency. But the timing of his June 23 disclosure of a probe into Deputy Commissioner of Police Suzette Martin, as embarrassingly overdue as that enquiry is, triggers alarm bells.

We could do without more drama. Besieged by crime is the country. Confidence in the service is low. To deal with allegations of misconduct is to take an essential step towards rebuilding trust – this appears to be Mr Guevarro’s overall calculation.

Bringing this matter to prominence so swiftly after his June 18 assumption of duties, however, risks painting a picture of a service engaged in an endless soap opera. Instead of criminals, officers are going after each other.

That the top cop spoke on this matter before the Police Service Commission had publicly addressed the issue of suspension is also disorderly, openly creating a situation in which an official remains in post while subject to probe.

The drama involving Ms Harewood-Christopher, who was swiftly suspended as top cop pending a firearms inquest, is not fully behind us: it is still in civil court; Ms Martin was, incidentally, at the forefront of Ms Harewood-Christopher’s shocking arrest without charge. Revolving is the door of bacchanal.

But the bigger issue is the complete lack of accountability under Mr Guevarro’s predecessors, including Ms Harewood-Christopher herself, in relation to the Brent Thomas affair.

It was in April 2023 that a High Court judge described as “a shameful blot on this country” the fact that Ms Martin and a team of officers involved in the 2022 abduction of Mr Thomas engaged in “unlawful acts as police officers” yet were “able to continue in their offices without investigation.” Instead of facing sanction, Ms Martin was elevated through the ranks under the PNM, notwithstanding concerns raised by the UNC, while lawyers appealed.

The top cop cannot work with deputies over whom there are clouds of suspicion. But if trust is integral to policing, so is timing.

Mr Guevarro, who is well-respected within the intelligence community from which he emerged to lead the police, should take care to avoid squandering goodwill in these early days of his tenure by embroiling the service in another needless drama of its own engineering.

Swift, orderly and impartial must be this probe, definitive must be its findings, and cleansed of all traces of tit-for-tat political retaliation must be any action taken. Of relevance are some peculiar optics: Is it a coincidence that a new deputy is already on the parliamentary order paper? The top cop needs to tread extra carefully.