Top Cop Launches Probe into Allegations made by Whistleblower Christopher Wylie

POLICE Commissioner Gary Griffith is recusing himself from an investigation into allegations of data mining by the former People’s Partnership Government.

The investigation is to be spearheaded by acting Deputy Commissioner of Police Jayson Forde.

In a statement on Thursday, Griffith said that the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPA) will try to interview whistleblower Christopher Wylie who has alleged that the previous People’s Partnership Government used data mining to gather information on the behviour of citizens and for political purposes.

Griffith was a national security minister under that regime.

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In his statement Griffith said:

The Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Gary Grif­fith gives the as­sur­ance that un­like the ‘email gate’ in­ves­ti­ga­tion, which was pro­longed for sev­er­al years be­fore com­ple­tion, these ac­cu­sa­tions made by Mr Christo­pher Wylie, would be swift­ly ad­dressed.

At this present time, the on­ly per­son of in­ter­est in this mat­ter is Mr Wylie, as he is the on­ly one who has made com­ments al­lud­ing to pos­si­ble crim­i­nal mis­con­duct.

His com­ments would man­date that the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) meets with him to es­tab­lish if a crime did take place, if he is an ac­ces­so­ry to that crime, and if oth­ers could be cul­pa­ble.

At this time, the TTPS has ab­solute­ly no ev­i­dence to ver­i­fy that any crime was com­mit­ted, and all that is in the pos­ses­sion of the TTPS is a book with Mr. Wylie’s claims.

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The Com­mis­sion­er says fur­ther, to these ac­cu­sa­tions “I have re­cused my­self from this mat­ter, and I have tasked rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the TTPS, led by Ag DCP Forde to meet with, and seek the ex­is­tence of any sup­port­ing ev­i­dence from Mr Wylie. This team will de­part as ear­ly as this week­end if Mr Wylie is con­tact­ed and agrees to be in­ter­viewed by the in­ves­tiga­tive team.

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The chain of events would be as fol­lows:

1. Ef­forts would be made to­day to con­tact Mr Wylie and seek his agree­ment to be in­ter­viewed this week­end.
2. If Mr Wylie re­fus­es to co­op­er­ate with the TTPS, the claims then can­not be sub­stan­ti­at­ed and then it would lack mer­it and the mat­ter would be closed.
3. If he is will­ing to, the Of­fi­cers would trav­el to the Unit­ed King­dom this week­end to con­duct the ex­ten­sive in­ter­view.
4. It is on­ly then that the TTPS would be able to as­cer­tain if what Mr Wylie has stat­ed and what­ev­er ma­te­r­i­al he can pro­duce, would war­rant an in­ves­ti­ga­tion to be launched in re­la­tion to pos­si­ble crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty.