Pubdate: Thu, 29 Nov 2007
Source: Trinidad Express (Trinidad)
Copyright: 2007 Trinidad Express
Contact:  http://www.trinidadexpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1093

A CHANCE FOR POLICE REDEMPTION

As a former head of the Firearms and Interdiction Unit  and with his
experience as a detective with the  Organised Crime and Narcotics
Unit, Supt Chandrabhan  Maharaj is better placed than most to be
informed about  the involvement of fellow officers in both the illegal
  gun and drug trades, the more so because the two are  demonstrably
connected.

Accusations of police corruption in general and  involvement in both
gun and drug rackets in particular  are not new but the
superintendent's allegations  clearly deserve the greatest weight
since he is in a  position to have extensive insider information that,
  properly handled, will blow the proverbial whistle on  at least some
of his crooked comrades.

It must have taken considerable courage for Supt  Maharaj to have
decided to beard the wolves in their  dens by not simply going up the
line to his superiors  but to put it, or have it put, in the public
domain  where it was bound to excite not only comment but a  show of
action by said superiors who almost immediately  announced the start
of an investigation.

If his decision to do both is a reflection of a certain  lack of
confidence in his superiors that is only to be  expected given the way
corruption has befouled Trinidad  and Tobago's Police Service over the
years in the full  knowledge and, indeed, under the noses of men high
in  the chain of command.

We know that the fillip to Supt Maharaj's move was the  promotion
which he was offered and which he refused,  but we still do not quite
know what led him to break  his silence, what was the straw that broke
the camel's  back in the context of his having ridden along,  although
reluctantly, for some time.

Whatever his underlying reasons we believe that the  law-abiding
majority in Trinidad and Tobago is prepared  to give him their
unstinting support the more so if, by  this single action, he is able
to trigger the beginning  of an upheaval that will succeed in helping
to make the  Police Service cleaner and the public, that it is sworn
to serve, safer.

And while the service is notoriously slow when it comes  to
investigating its own officers Police Commissioner  Trevor Paul will
have to ensure that this case is  conducted with due dispatch or else
there are going to  be renewed and concerted calls for an independent
body  to investigate this and other accusations that serve to  erode
the public's trust in their own police.
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MAP posted-by: Derek