(CMC) – Former Trinidad and Tobago police commissioner, Gary Griffith, says he makes “no apology for providing citizens with the opportunity to protect and defend themselves” after a retired Court of Appeal judge described the issuance of firearm user’s licences (FUL) by the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) as “a thriving well-oiled white collar criminal enterprise.”
The Sunday Express newspaper in Trinidad said retired Appeal Court judge, Stanley John, had been appointed by the former Police Service Commission (PSC) to enquire into allegations of corruption in the issuance of FUL.
John in his report recommended a police probe into several matters raised during his investigation and that “the errant persons be brought to justice and not be allowed to go free.”
“My investigation leaves me with the firm view of the existence within the TTPS of a highly dysfunctional system for processing applications for FULs and other related licences/permits. The system is replete with opportunities for illegal, irregular and other corrupt practices. Clearly, the advantage taken of these opportunities has been widespread,” John wrote in his report.
“Indeed, the then-commissioner has mentioned that he was aware of the significance of this problem by way of several reports made to him. His efforts to address it have clearly been woefully unsuccessful. His own explanation of his involvement in the process, in my opinion… was in breach of the law as set out in Section 16 of the Firearms Act. This has been a master class in dysfunctionalisation,” it continued.
Under the Firearms Act, it is the Commissioner of Police who grants approvals for FULs and John reported that “the commissioner has not performed the functions entrusted to him by law in relation to the issuance of firearm licences. To use his own language, he depended on the ‘integrity of the system’, a system which he admitted had serious flaws and opened itself to corruption.
“I wish to state that notwithstanding commissioner Griffith’s philosophy that by issuing firearms to citizens, he was thereby genuinely reducing the opportunity for corruption, this investigation has found the contrary.”
John said it was his opinion that Griffith’s liberal policy had the potential to militarise sections of the society.
But in a statement, Griffith, whose three-year contract as police commissioner ended in August last year, dismissed the report by the retired judge, saying it was a ‘carbon copy” of a report done by a two-man committee appointed by the National Security Council.
“The Stanley John report, being drafted by someone with no training or experience in criminal investigations, is virtually a carbon copy of the Barrington report, with the chain of events being: Government hand-picks and pays someone to investigate possible criminal offences.
“The individual submits a report full of ‘it is alleged’, ‘it is rumoured’, and ‘I have heard’,” Griffiths said. “The report is then leaked immediately to the media by Government officials who hired them,” Griffith said, adding that “a third ‘investigative report’ is also forthcoming, also by selected civilians of the Government, which would say and achieve the same objective.”
He insisted that the granting of FULs was a rigorous process, with many layers with the completed file submitted to the Commissioner of Police for signature.
“Under my watch, the following was publicly undertaken: I openly stated that there was a matter of concern of corruption in firearm issue. The best way to start solving a problem is to admit that there was a problem. It was made easier for law-abiding citizens to acquire firearms, hence affecting the blackmail and bribery being conducted by the few rogue elements in the TTPS using the process of difficulty in acquiring such licences,” he shared.
“I openly and constantly requested citizens to come forward and submit reports or evidence of such blackmail and bribery, established 14 policies to reduce such abuse and criminal activity of bribery, inclusive of the formation of a Compliance Unit and issuing a FUL card with a chip to ensure that forged books cannot be used and sold, and note that as soon as I left, some of these policies were shut down.”
Griffiths also dismissed suggestions that his ‘liberal policy’ had the potential to ‘militarise sections of the society’ saying it is “completely stunning, flabbergasting and clearly out of sync with the Trinidad and Tobago within which most citizens live in fear of criminals with significant cadres of high-powered weaponry….
“Whereas not one of these legally issued firearms have been breached in terms of use. However, it is certainly easier to pontificate from an ivory tower when one has little clue as to what citizens face on a daily basis. I make no apology for providing citizens with the opportunity to protect and defend themselves,” Griffith said.
