“Excellent” and “extremely excellent”.
That is how Minister of Homeland Security Roger Alexander yesterday described the performance of Police Commissioner Allister Guevarro as he marked one year in office.
Alexander was speaking with members of the media outside Parliament, at the Red House, Port of Spain.
Alexander recalled a situation between June 2 and June 3 when maxi-taxi drivers conducted a nationwide strike that affected thousands of commuters.
The minister recalled that in an attempt to resolve the situation, Guevarro used his initiative and utilised police vehicles to help travellers.
He pointed out that the gesture spoke to the leadership of the Commissioner.
Alexander also responded to a question surrounding the suicide of police corporal Yohanis Joseph at the Sangre Grande Police Station earlier this week.
He said the incident would be investigated.
Asked if there were concerns about mental health challenges involving police officers, Alexander acknowledged there was.
He said: “You see how things do come back in a circle. When there was an investigation going on recently and I mentioned that the officers supposed to go for counselling, all of a sudden there was an outcry.”
He was referring to the police-involved shooting that left Joshua Samaroo dead and Kaia Sealy injured on January 20 in St Augustine.
Alexander said long-standing repercussions facing police officers were real and agreed it was one that the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service had long ago identified.
He said oftentimes they gave the officers the opportunity to acknowledge that they had an issue.
“The first thing you have to do is realise you have an issue. Once you do that, we often send them for outside help,” Alexander said.
