By Anesta Henry
Attorney General Dale Marshall says the Barbados Police Service is still struggling with a manpower shortage with not enough people showing interest in working for the law enforcement agency.
However, he said there has been some progress in addressing the issue.
Addressing the 147th Passing Out Parade and Graduation Ceremony for 55 police recruits at the Regional Police Training Centre on Wednesday, he said that while the law enforcement agency has 1 242 officers, 46 special constables, 36 island constables and 214 civilians, recruitment remains a problem.
Marshall said this difficulty in recruiting new officers presented a challenge to the high command of the Police Service which could not engage in significant manpower planning, and also impacted service delivery and resulted in increased workload for police officers.
However, the Attorney General indicated that the Police Service’s recruitment drive had started to show positive results. He said this year’s cohort was the largest in several years, although it was just a drop in the bucket.
According to him, between 2018 and 2022, approximately 204 officers left the Police Service and so far this year, 33 have left the ranks.
“So if you compare the intake with those numbers of individuals leaving, you will see that we don’t exactly have an equation that is leaning heavily towards increased numbers. The substantive Commissioner has informed me that so far, looking towards the next class, we have a pool of about 66 persons currently being vetted for consideration for the Class of 148. So we are making progress,” Marshall said as he invited eligible persons to consider a career in the Police Service.
Giving the assurance that he was paying attention to the terms and conditions under which police officers work, Marshall said steps were being taken to fully incorporate the Special Constables into the Service.
He said amendments to the Police Act were on his desk awaiting final sign-off and would be in Parliament within the next six weeks.
“We will also be looking at making sure that our hardworking Island Constables are not left behind,” Marshall said.
Meantime, giving an update on proposed plea bargaining legislation, he said it will be laid in Parliament in a few weeks. This will go hand-in-hand with the introduction of judge-only trials to help reduce the backlog of cases in the judicial system.
“The rationale behind these measures is really quite simple. If you move cases through the system quickly, then we have the opportunity to remove the backlog in our systems,” he said.
Marshall told the graduating police officers that they must not let their guard down as they served their countrymen, while Acting Commissioner of Police and Director of Training Erwin Boyce warned them that poor customer service interaction would not be tolerated.
“You are reminded that the greatest value in policing is people. In other words, policing is a people business; almost everything is about people. You will realise that there will be people who will know you as a police officer, people who will look up to you, people who are afraid of you and, yes, even people who will run away from you and challenge you. But you are reminded that whatever the business, they are people with dignity and rights and hence must be and deserve to be treated with respect, compassion and, when required accountability,” he said.
“You have become a part of a disciplined and accredited organisation whose reputation and, indeed, legitimacy is shaped by the law of the land and etched in high universal police standards of application.”
The leading recruit was Police Constable 2357 Shanice Lovell. Of the 13 special awards presented, she took 11: Baton of Honour, Commandant’s Trophy, Best Recruit, Most Outstanding Student, Best at Physical Training (Female), Best at Constitutional Law and Human Rights, Best at Officers’ Safety Training & First Aid, Best at Multi-Disciplines Subjects, Best at Police Duty Subjects, Best at Evidence Procedure, and Student with the Highest Aggregate.
