The T&T Police Service is reportedly short of the desired number of officers it needs.
In fact, T&T Police Service Social and Welfare Association president Gideon Dickson claims the
TTPS is short of 1,400 officers.
Dickson, in a GML report, said there are currently attempts to do recruiting but anticipated that this will be able to do little to resolve the issue.
The police service currently has 6,491 officers. However, the desired number is 7,884. Some 330 officers are currently on suspension.
Dickson said: “We have weapons that could be able to compete against what the criminal elements have, but what we do need is training not updated weapons. But I would suggest that officers are trained by Guard and Emergency Branch officers and issued certificates which will also give further dates for retraining and so on. This would ease the police training academy as well.”
“We also need our criminal justice system to play a greater critical role in terms of how we treat with the criminals that are brought to justice and the criminal justice system isn’t just the court but it also speaks to our prisons and all the other apparatuses to be functional because the State has a responsibility, likewise the community has a responsibility, likewise the corporate citizens have a responsibility, so we need all these stakeholders to be on the same page rather than we operating in silos and passing the blame,” he added.
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