Bill coming soon to change rules to appoint police chief

Leader of Government Business in the Trinidad and Tobago House of Representatives Colm Imbert said Thursday he expects to present legislation to Parliament in September to speed up the process of appointing a new police commissioner.

The government refused to endorse candidate recommended by the Police Service Commission (PSC). It said while Senior Superintendent Stephen Williams was well qualified for the job, it had to turn down the recommendation because the system was "flawed".

Related: Government rejects Williams as police commissioner
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That's a position that the PSC and Williams rejected. However they had no choice but to accept the decision since the law governing the appointment allows Parliament to either accept or reject the PSC recommendation.

Imbert told reporters at Whitehall the proposed amendments would allow consultants to handle the entire first phase of the process, from advertisement to assessing candidates.

It will also allow the Police Service Commission to interact with consultants on the issue along the way, instead of at the end.

Imbert hopes the changes would shorten the process by six months, and take less time than the 11 months the process took recently.

The PSC disputes Imbert statement that the process took that long.

Imbert refused to say whether the government would prefer a foreigner for the job. "We just want the best person for the job, whether foreign or local," he said.

He also announced that whoever is appointed police commissioner would be able to negotiate a compensation package instead of just accepting the current salary of $25,000.00 a month.

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