FORMER commissioner of police (CoP) Gary Griffith says the purchase of sniper rifles for the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) is not a criminal offence and cannot be used to justify the arrest and questioning of incumbent CoP Erla Harewood-Christopher.
He claimed there were some people in the ranks of the police who were constantly trying to displace others to get their jobs.
Griffith called for the immediate removal of the police's Professional Standards Bureau (PSB) and a return to the use of internationally accredited institutions to select CoPs and deputy police commissioners (DCPs) instead of the Police Service Commission (PSC).
Harewood-Christopher was arrested at her office in Port of Spain on January 30 and questioned as part of a criminal investigation into the importation of sniper rifles for the Strategic Services Agency (SSA).
She was detained at the St Clair Police Station and subsequently released at 5.50 pm on February 1.
A statement on March 3, 2024, from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) said the National Security Council recommended the removal of then SSA head retired Major Roger Best, the appointment of Brig Gen Anthony Phillips-Spencer as interim director and an audit of the agency.
Best, who was subsequently fired last March, was also arrested in relation to the importation of the rifles on January 29.
He was subsequently released from the Belmont Police Station.
As a former CoP, national security minister and TT Defence Force (TTDF) officer, Griffith said he had more knowledge than most people about what could be at the heart of Harewood-Christopher's predicament.
In a WhatsApp video on February 2, he said "It is amazing that up to now, the police service cannot say what they planned to arrest and charge Erla Christopher for."
When Harewood-Christopher was released on February 1, her attorney Pamela Elder, SC, said no evidence had been shown to justify her arrest.
Griffith said the Firearms Act only allowed the police and the TTDF to bring in prohibited weapons.
"The SSA is not seen as a law-enforcement agency so they will not be entitled to have prohibited weapons because all the individuals in the SSA are hired as civilians."
He said there was nothing illegal about sniper rifles being bought for the SSA.
"A sniper rifle is not a prohibited weapon because it is not an automatic weapon."
Griffith claimed someone in the police's legal department "who is not very bright" might have thought this was an offence under the Firearms Act.
"If that is the reason for what they did to Erla Christopher, my God, it shows the standard of the legal departmentt of the TTPS (Trinidad and Tobago Police Service)."
He added the only thing acquiring sniper rifles for the SSA might do was cause administrative glitches because another organisation had to buy those rifles for it.
Griffith said Harewood-Christopher's situation was not new.
"This has been going on for the last few years in the TTPS. The object now seems to be, whoever is the king or the queen, your role is t
