Debbie Jacob
I AM BAFFLED by former police commissioner Gary Griffith’s uncalled-for criticism of two 2024 Chaconia Silver national award recipients, former acting police commissioners James Philbert and Stephen Williams. I am disappointed, too, not just because it was an unprofessional and mean-spirited thing to do, but because it represents one of our biggest problems in this country: self- aggrandisement.
It takes nothing away from us to celebrate others’ success and recognition. People can say whatever they want about you, but talk can never erase facts. Someone will set the record straight, as retired police inspector Lindsay Wheeler did with anecdotes and information that showed the character of Philbert and Williams.
Pointing out that Griffith had not come up the ranks of the police service and so had not experienced the work of Philbert and Williams, Wheeler said, “If you were a police officer, you would have known the very massive contribution, commitment and patriotism displayed by commissioner Philbert and commissioner Williams, both of whom worked their way upwards in the police service from the rank of constable.”
He wrote about Philbert’s reputation as a “work jumbie,” motivator and masterful interviewer who got suspects to “break, cry and confess their involvement…in crime” with no physical coercion.
Wheeler said Williams “probably still has the record for obtaining the most convictions as a police court prosecutor in the police service…Defence attorneys were very fearful of him.” He called Williams an excellent administrator who gave everyone a hearing.
“He has dedicated all his energies to the upliftment of the TT Police Service (TTPS).”
Wheeler also lauded Williams’s selflessness, saying Williams, former corporal Wayne Hayde and many other officers had dedicated many off-duty hours for several months – including weekends – to help officers of varying ranks prepare for police promotion examinations.
Philbert’s and Williams’s response to Griffith’s attack showed how little Griffith knew about the two former acting commissioners. Williams even pointed out that while Griffith was busy "bigging up" himself for the lowest crime rate while he was head of national security, Williams had been the sitting police commissioner.
And here’s something else you wouldn’t know about Philbert and Williams. They were the two commissioners who sanctioned my research of the canine section to write Police Dogs of Trinidad and Tobago: a 70-Year History, published in the US. They gave me unrestricted access to canine officers and the police dogs’ files so people could have a different vision of how crime developed in this country.
Philbert and Stephens were progressive, supportive commissioners who understood the importance of finding new angles to tell our history, and I will forever be grateful for their support.
Those police dog files were destroyed in the 2018 flood in Caroni. If not for their forward-thinking vision, invaluable records and history would literally have just washed away.
As
