Former Police Commissioner Gary Griffith is no longer interested in holding office as head of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service- he has his eyes and hopes set on leading government. 

Responding to the Police Service Commission’s amendment to the Top Cop application process which now mandates that only career police officers may apply, Griffith- whose acting appointment for the post was revoked shortly after his three year contract ended in August 2021- believes the move was created to automatically block him from reapplying.

“If this was done to satisfy the political will of Keith Rowley and Fitzgerald Hinds, which as everyone knows is to prevent me from reapplying for the post, let me say that these efforts were not warranted, since I’ve long moved on and I’m now fully focused on the Office Keith Rowley now holds,” Griffith said in a statement.

He described the criteria as a “retrograde step” which ignores international precedents from other countries and jurisdictions like Jamaica and New York City.

“…Where Jamaica has a member of their Defence Force heading their Police, and New York City doesn’t not even allow serving members of their police department to be CoP, in order to avoid issues of collusion and corruption borne out of familiarity,”  he said.

“But the most egregious aspect of this new move by the PSC however, is that it ignores the will of the people who saw what someone from outside the service could do in reducing crime by record numbers, and who made them feel safe and secure from the tyranny that they now face daily from the criminals in our midst,” the former Commissioner added.

On his political ambitions he said: “This is why as I focus on my future service to Trinidad and Tobago I want to assure that any government that I will be a part of, will be one of inclusion, empowering citizens, and transforming the country in ways, never before seen.”