Police association celebrates promotion move, urges action on loan programme

The Barbados Police Association (BPA) has made significant progress in securing long-promised benefits for officers, with a breakthrough in the promotion of officers to senior constable rank after months of delays, Barbados TODAY can reveal.

The president of the police association, Inspector Wendley Carter, had complained that The Barbados Police Service senior command team was not acting urgently enough in pushing to implement all the measures related to the constabulary as promised by Prime Minister Mia Mottley in her budget last year.

Inspector Carter said only one of the three proposals – allowances for detectives – was paid and that only happened last November.

He said the other two which remained outstanding a year after the Budget were promotion to senior constable after 20 years, and the regrading of station sergeant, sergeant, and detective to be included in the schedule of the public officers’ loan and travel allowance (POLTA) so that they too can benefit from interest-free loans for their cars.

But on Friday, the association revealed it had made a breakthrough in resolving the outstanding issue of promotion of police constables to the rank of senior constable.

Inspector Carter told Barbados TODAY: “The one for the senior constable, there is movement. We only have to respond to the Ministry of the Public Service to the document that the commissioner sent. What he sent, we really don’thave any concern about. So, we will just send it off, not today, because we only got it today, but by Monday we will respond to the ministry. We don’t have any problem with what was sent from his office. The ministry asked if we knew about it, and they say they want a response from us.

“We don’t want the tables turn to say that we are the hold-up.”

The police association leader said the third outstanding measure – the loan and travel allowance– has to be tabled in Parliament.

“The [attorney general] said the POLTA is a matter of getting it before Parliament because they used to talk about the Inspectors Act and they are going to get a travel allowance attached. You will get the interest-free, but you will get the allowance if you are a travelling officer. But I don’t think the detective constables, sergeants and stations sergeants were considered travelling officers. So, it’s just a matter of getting it laid in Parliament,” Inspector Carter pointed out.

In another development, the association spokesman said members of the service have welcomed government’s proposal to automatically transition all special constables into the police service without them having to be retrained at the Regional Police Training Centre.

He said this was something the organisation had asked for.

“We had a meeting with them, and most of them don’t have a problem with coming over…transitioning into the force. So, we have to hold another meeting and then respond back to the [senior command team] because we don’t knowwhen that is going to come to pass,” Inspector Carter stated.

He also revealed that the association will soon be amending its constitution to include special constables for representation.

The leader disclosed that it was also concerned that the administration is using transfers as a form of punishment, a matter that will soon be discussed by members. emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb