00:00Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander has expressed his concerns about what he identified as a serious challenge regarding promotions within
00:08the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service.
00:10I can recall back in the day when there was an issue for promotion and persons took the police commissioner
00:17before the court.
00:18The court would have asked the commissioner to secure places depending on the outcome of it.
00:27So if there are vacancies for 29 persons and one person take the police commissioner before the court, the court
00:38will say, right, they will reserve a spot for one person so the commissioner could go ahead and promote 28
00:45persons.
00:48This is no longer sold. The whole process is being stopped.
00:51In a telephone interview with TV6 News, Minister Alexander said a lot of the officers have spoken to him about
00:56the issue, which he said is affecting promotions in every rank in the TTPS.
01:02We even reached out to the police service, the Police Service and Welfare Association, to see if we could find
01:09a common ground, if we could approach the court,
01:12because this is causing a serious green drain as it relates to the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service.
01:20Minister Alexander hopes that the matter can be resolved soon.
01:23We can make a decision for the court and we will never try to.
01:27This is just a conversation in the right direction, I think it is.
01:30And it's a conversation that we need to have now because of the amount of persons that we are losing
01:35on a daily basis
01:37because of the lack of promotion in the service, the upliftment of officers to a different rank.
01:44The Homeland Security Minister said the situation is also affecting the acting appointments of some police officers.
01:50If you look at the police service right now, there's a lot of persons double acting.
01:55So an inspector of police should be acting if there need be in the other rank, which is an assistant
02:03superintendent of police.
02:04He's acting as a superintendent that is two ranks up.
02:11So that is one of the issues that we are having.
02:14So when you see officers going out there and doing their duty and being so successful,
02:20you know a lot of them is sometimes putting these things behind them and serving, doing this kind of work
02:27for country.
02:28Minister Alexander said the situation is affecting the morale of police officers,
02:32some of whom have been waiting three years for promotion.
02:36We are losing honest officers with good integrity who operates and who perform their duty in a professional, respectable manner.
02:48And we need those officers around to continue the journey of the Toronto Beagle Police Service.
02:56Persons who have that experience in policing and also an experience at the court level.
03:04The Homeland Security Minister told TV6 News that as a former police officer,
03:09he understands what those affected are going through.
03:13June Brown, TV6 News.
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