PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – After the resignation of Trinidad & Tobago’s Commissioner of Police, Dr. Dwayne Gibbs and Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr Jack Ewatski, the Hon. Kamla Persad-Bissessar. MP, SC, Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago issued the following statement:
I am advised that, the Commissioner of Police, Dr. Dwayne Gibbs and Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr Jack Ewatski, tendered their resignations to the Police Service Commission effective from 7th August 2012.
I am further advised that the Police Service Commission (PSC) met and considered the resignations and have taken note of same. And indeed you may have already received the media release from the Police Service Commission which reads as follows:
‘The Police Service Commission today July 30th 2012 received and noted letters of resignation dated 26th July 2012, from Commissioner of Police Dr. Dwayne Gibbs and Deputy Commissioner of Police Mr Jack Ewatski advising of their resignation from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service effective 7th August 2012.
The Commission wishes to assure that the nation is committed to the process of managing the transition to ensure continuity and stability at the executive level of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service.’
And so I am advised in this regard that the PSC is engaged in the process of appointing persons to fill the vacancies which have been created by the resignations of the two officers.
On behalf of the government and people of Trinidad and Tobago, I wish to thank Commissioner Gibbs and Deputy Commissioner Ewatski for their service.
We stand ready to support the new Acting Commissioner of Police and other deputy commissioners and we pray for their success.
I ask that you rest assured that all necessary resources will be placed at the disposal of those reposed with the authority and responsibility of getting the job done quickly and effectively.
There can be no greater effort, nothing of more significance or urgency, than guaranteeing our Nation’s safety and security.
We are of the view that there is no room for failure nor patience for excuses but an abundance of gratitude await those who will become the heroes of the Nation’s most bitter war on crime.
It will be waged in the battle for young minds and in the provision of avenues for a brighter future for youth, but will also be hard-fought on the streets with a better equipped police service – armed with technology and weaponry and improved incentives for performance.
We will work to create tactical and intelligence units of the joint services that will become the pride of law enforcement and the terror of the underworld.
Together with you the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, we will emancipate ourselves from the burden of fear, from the burden of lawlessness and unbridled violence.
No measure will be spared against those who seek to terrorize and brutalize our elderly folk, our women, children and men.
The national outrage has reached a stage where everyone agrees that stronger and more aggressive initiatives are required.
We must channel this sense of outrage into an army of resistance that involves every law abiding citizen.
The battle lines are clearly drawn and we are confident that good will prevails over evil.
Ours is the duty of hard action to be taken against those who wish to threaten public safety at any level. And we will deal with them with the full force of the law.
As head of the National Security Council, together with the other members of that council we have identified several major shifts in policy and programs as the government moves to arrest the issue of crime as our number one priority.
Over the next few weeks newly appointed Minister of National Security, the Honourable Jack Warner, will be announcing the details of some of these measures.
I ask that we give him all out support as we will give to those who will fill the vacancies in the Public Service.
I want to thank you very much.
