Griffith: I’ll be Back like a Boomerang

By Chantalé Fletcher

FORMER police commissioner Gary Griffith vows he will be back to serve his country.

He said, “I’m a boomerang and I’ll be back in whichever form or fashion,” was the message delivered by Griffith speaking on the Morning Edition on TV6 with host Fazeer Mohammed on Monday.

He made reference to a British poll which showed that 93% of the Second Division officers had trust and confidence in him.

“I was not a police officer, so you have to earn trust to be leader and not just wear it on your shoulder and that’s what I did.

“I worked based on what was in the Constitution and I had no intention to breach the constitutional rights of any citizens in this country regardless of their colour.”

Griffith admitted that no police service was perfect and he was concerned about a couple hundred out of 7,000 good hard-working police officers.

“This played a big part towards the last 18 months when I was in office, there were over 200 less murders than in the same period last year.

“Meanwhile, in the last ten weeks when I was not there, there were 50 more murders in the same ten weeks than the same last ten weeks from last year and in the seven months earlier, there were 50 less murders.”

He made reference to a poll which stated that 89% of the respondents desired his return to office while 11% had concerns about an individual like himself.

Griffith said, “My records speak for itself, the assessments, every single violent crime was reduced by 25% to 38% last year, which was the highest reduction in crime.

“When I joined the service, police confidence was now over 40%. If persons have an issue with Gary Griffith’s personality, it’s all part of the package. I do what is right for this country.”

He said, “If you don’t want Gary Griffith, then you deal with in Parliament where it matters. Someone should not try to hide or scrap a merit list but deal with it how our constitution was set to appoint a Commissioner of Police.”