The Police Service is cognisant that as the State of Emergency (SoE) ended at midnight on November 18, public behaviour will change and they are readying themselves to act.
Senior officials yesterday revealed that they had begun recalling officers from vacation and had also put out a call for personnel assigned to specialist and administrative sections, as part of the effort to augment the current crop of officers.
Speaking during the TTPS’s weekly media briefing at the Police Administration Building, Port-of-Spain yesterday, acting Deputy Police Commissioner in charge of Operations, Erla Christopher said with the lifting of the SoE, “This brings back some measure of freedom to the citizenry.”
She added, “Citizens are waiting to exhale” following eight months of restrictions. While the TTPS understands the feelings of exuberance and excitement and exhilaration, please note that behaviours must be within the confines of the law, particularly the existing public health regulations.”
Christopher assured the TTPS remained committed and steadfast to ensuring that residential, commercial and industrial communities are safe.
Indicating they are collaborating with all the agencies under the ambit of the Ministry of National Security, as well as private security agencies to a certain extent – she said the TTPS had also joined hands with the Ministries of Social Development, Sport and Community Development, and Youth Development and National Service, to provide a softer approach where needed.
Vowing to enforce existing regulations, Christopher said the TTPS would be carrying out increased foot and mobile patrols on a 24-hour basis, along with road blocks, and routine stop and search exercises.
With the resumption of full service in restaurants and bars, the TTPS is anticipating increased incidents of Driving Under the Influence (DUI) related-collisions, and as such, “There will be an increase in the DUI testing exercises throughout the nation.”
In order to sustain this approach, Christopher said an administrative decision had been made to, “call out officers who are on vacation leave. Additionally, officers who perform in specialist sections and the few who are involved in administrative duties will provide additional support.”
Approximately 60 officers have so far been recalled from vacation; and among the specialist sections that officers are being culled from are Community Policing Unit, the Gender Based Violence Unit, the Crime and Problem Analysis Unit, the Fraud Squad, the Human Resource Department, and the Finance Department.
Officers from these specialist sections will be required to complete their assigned duties before providing an additional four hours of service for which they will be paid.
Claiming officers will operate within the confines of the law, she urged persons to exhale in a controlled manner and with the festive season upon us, she reminded persons that officers are also vulnerable as they carry out their duties.
Acting Police Commissioner Mc Donald Jacob said the call out exercise was incomplete and that they were actually hoping to bring back out at least 100 officers from vacation leave – and this would be further strengthened by the inclusion of Special Reserve Police officers (SRPs).
He said they are looking to have over 200 officers join their peers in the field,
Jacob said, “The call out for the officers on vacation leave is for approximately one month. Basically, from the 24th of this month in relation to the persons on vacation leave, to the 24th of December.”
Jacob said an estimated 48 more officers who just graduated from the Police Academy are to be deployed by the end of this month, and another 56 will be ready for deployment by December 18.
While it is mainly police constables and corporals that are being recalled at this time, Jacob said it is not yet known how much this will cost the TTPS as officers have the option of being paid or proceeding on vacation leave at another time.
Responding to questions about the gatherings observed in Tobago as electioneering continues ahead of the December 6 polls, Jacob again said he was disappointed about what had occurred last Monday during nominations.
However, he assured that following a meeting with senior officials from the division on the matter, they were not expecting to see any further such occurrences.
Jacob said no tickets were issued nor was anyone arrested in relation to last Monday’s incident in Tobago.
