THE Prime Minister in September 2020 put pen to paper to raise with the former Police Service Commission (PSC) matters he said caused him serious concern on former commissioner Gary Griffith's suitability to continue to hold the office of commissioner.
The letter was disclosed to social activist Ravi Balgobin-Maharaj in reply to a freedom of information request.
In the letter, Dr Rowley referred to a statement he made at a covid19 press briefing on September 12, 2021, on his expectation that the law as it related to breaches of the pandemic relation would apply to every citizen. He was questioned at the time about a private pool gathering in Westmoorings.
He said in relation to his statements about the police, it appeared his discourse was interpreted by Griffith as being 'offensive to him' and he made his 'own interpretation and embarked on a course of behaviour that is most unbecoming of a commissioner,' Rowley told the commission.
He said he received a series of messages from Griffith that evening taking issue with what he said, 'and the content of these messages was disrespectful to the Office of the Prime Minister and betrayed a lack of balance expected from an officer in his position.'
Rowley said the next day Griffith continued messaging in a 'challenging, aggressive and somewhat disrespectful manner.' He said Griffith also made 'very inappropriate comments and statements' to the public in a radio interview in which 'he used insulting and disrespectful language with reference to me suggesting amongst other things I was racist and a hypocrite,' the Prime Minister went on to say.
Rowley said he requested a meeting with Griffith and DCPs Forde and Jacob along with the Attorney General and Minister of National Security. That meeting was held on September 14, 2020, and the Prime Minister said he was 'disturbed' by Griffith's behaviour and found it to be 'unacceptable and intolerable.'
He said at the meeting with Griffith and the DCPs, he recorded that in all his 40 years of public service, he had never known a Commissioner of Police to publicly engage a Prime Minister and 'certainly not in the manner that Mr Griffith had done in the previous days.
'I told Mr Griffith that he had publicly accused me of being a hypocrite, of encouraging the TTPS to breach the Constitution, of being a racist, and of being incompetent as I did not seek advice. I advised that I was not engaging in any debate on public and private property but that I spoke about enforcing the law as it exists. I had to point out that a law that does not exist cannot be 'enforced'. I also emphasised that I do not give instructions to the TTPS. I suggested to Mr Griffith that it would be advisable for him to take a step back and do some reflecting and we would move forward and consider the unfortunate occurrence to be 'water under the bridge'.'
He said he told Griffith he would write to the PSC to record what took place as he was 'not prepared to tolerate the disrespect to the Offic
