Trinidad security minister gives Top Cop an “A” grade

(Trinidad Guardian) Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young has giv­en Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith an “A” grade for his ster­ling per­for­mance as top cop, promis­ing that for the new year cit­i­zens would see a more se­ri­ous ap­proach to crime fight­ing.

Young rat­ed Grif­fith’s per­for­mance dur­ing a tour yes­ter­day at the In­ter-Agency Task Force (IATF) head­quar­ters in San Juan, where he thanked scores of of­fi­cers for work­ing on Christ­mas Day and giv­ing their ded­i­ca­tion and com­mit­ment.

Young told the of­fi­cers that they have the full back­ing and sup­port of his min­istry, as he plead­ed with them not to be dragged over on the wrong side while un­der­tak­ing their du­ties.

“That is nev­er an op­tion. As you go out there and per­form your du­ties and you take more firearms and drugs off the streets that is some­thing we are grate­ful for,” Young told the of­fi­cers.

Asked by Guardian Me­dia how he would as­sess Grif­fith per­for­mance, Young smiled, while Grif­fith blushed at times.

Since Grif­fith’s ap­point­ment in Au­gust, Young said he has had a great work­ing re­la­tion­ship with him while there has been a dy­nam­ic in­ter­ac­tion tak­ing place with heads of se­cu­ri­ty agen­cies and Grif­fith who plays an im­por­tant role.

Such in­ter­ac­tions, Young said, has led to a boost of morale among of­fi­cers.

“From a KPI (key per­for­mance in­di­ca­tor) point of view so far, he is way ahead. I am sure he will con­tin­ue to main­tain it.”

While Young said the pub­lic has been back­ing Grif­fith in car­ry­ing out his tasks, the top cop has al­so been faced with a lot of pres­sure.

“In 2019, I ex­pect to see some progress….se­ri­ous progress,” Young as­sured.

Asked to give a rat­ing on Grif­fith’s per­for­mance as the year comes to a close, a smil­ing Young turned to Grif­fith who was grin­ning from ear-to-ear and asked “Gary what to tell them? At this stage it is still ear­ly…it is four months. Cer­tain­ly, at this stage, he is an A.”

With the mur­der rate cross­ing 500 in 2018, Grif­fith said his man­date for 2019 was to pro­vide safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty for T&T’s cit­i­zens.

“I think 2019 is go­ing to be a big year in Trinidad and To­ba­go. We can very well see a turn­around.”

Grif­fith said his of­fi­cers are will­ing to put their lives on the line for the coun­try.

“Rather than us al­ways try­ing to de­grade, con­demn and crit­i­cise them I think what we should be do­ing is com­mend­ing them for what they have been do­ing.”

The top cop al­so gave the IATF of­fi­cers an 11 out of ten grad­ing in fight­ing crime.