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The re­cent shake-up in the hi­er­ar­chy of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) is draw­ing mixed re­ac­tions, with some po­lice of­fi­cers, as well as a south­ern busi­ness cham­ber and a crim­i­nol­o­gist ques­tion­ing the de­ci­sion. Oth­ers, though, say the changes are com­plete­ly nor­mal.

Crim­i­nol­o­gist Dar­ius Figuera sug­gest­ed that pol­i­tics may be at play. He not­ed that the changes came just days af­ter Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der told se­nior po­lice of­fi­cers at a pass­ing-out cer­e­mo­ny to sup­port Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro, adding they should not “feel hurt they did not get the job”. The min­is­ter said his com­ments were not in­tend­ed to at­tack any­one.

Figuera said, “To speak of that at a pass­ing out pa­rade, that is po­lit­i­cal over­reach, es­pe­cial­ly at a pass­ing out pa­rade in pub­lic.”