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.