PAY POLICEMEN MOREBy NEWSDAY REPORTER Wednesday, September 1 2010
ACTING Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams yesterday said policemen and women especially in the lower ranks, who are out battling criminals, ought to be paid more.
Speaking to reporters at an Independence Day cocktail ceremony at Police Administration Building in Port-of-Spain, Williams said he was in full agreement with the stance taken by the Police Service Social Welfare Association which is agitating for a better pay package for Second Division police officers.
Asked to comment about the $1.5 million pay package which incoming Commissioner of Police (CoP), Canadian born Dwayne Gibbs negotiated with Government as opposed to his much lower salary, Williams side-stepped the issue saying, “I am not concerned about this. I am well qualified...I have options available to me.” Williams is a qualified attorney.
He said he is more concerned about police officers in the lower ranks who daily face the heat in fighting crime and who are still being paid 2007 salaries. “They are facing the heat out there and ought to be properly compensated,” Williams said.
He advised that Government should treat as a matter “of great urgency” the issue of salaries for policemen. Days before Independence Day celebrations, the police association threatened to boycott the Independence Day parade and also to not undertake extra duties in protest of stalled salary negotiations.
Protest action was shelved following a meeting between Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Finance Minister Winston Dookeran and members of the police association led by its president Sgt Anand Ramesar.
Out of this meeting held last week at the Office of the Prime Minister, came a commitment by Government to commence salary negotiations with the police association in return for the officers’ pledge to shelve all plans for protest action.
Speaking on the Police Service Commission’s (PSC) letter to his predecessor James Philbert asking that he (Philbert) demit office as Ag CoP on Sunday last rather than the due date of September 30, Williams said while he was “a bit concerned” about the way Philbert’s career ended, he was sure that politics was in no way involved as if this was the case, he would not have accepted the post of Ag CoP.
For her part, Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar who attended yesterday’s function and chatted casually with Williams, said she was not concerned about the incoming Canadian-born CoP serving as a de-motivating factor for police officers seeking to move up the ranks.
She said every police officer should aspire for the top post in the service and that a foreign CoP should not be a de-motivating factor but rather one to motivate policemen, as the Police Service will be exposed to policing and crime fighting from a different perspective.
She reiterated her confidence in CoP-designate Gibbs and fellow Canadian-born Deputy CoP Jack Ewatski’s capabilities in arresting the spiralling crime rate and to weed out the rogue elements in the service.
President George Maxwell Richards, another guest at yesterday’s function, was high in praise for now retired Ag CoP Philbert. The President said Philbert had served the country with distinction as a policeman for over 40 years and that Philbert deserved praise especially as he took charge of the service at a time when crime was becoming more rampant.
“Try as we may, we could never put ourselves in the dangers faced daily by these policemen. We can imagine what they go through maintaining law and order daily, but we don’t know what it is to experience what policemen go through,” President Richards said.
