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Tuesday, August 26, 2025

SRPs told tattoos make them targets

by

20140426

Com­man­dant of the Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice (SRP) Snr Supt Glen­dor Thomas says tat­toos make po­lice of­fi­cers tar­gets.He said while of­fi­cers en­ter­ing the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice are pro­hib­it­ed from hav­ing vis­i­ble tat­toos, that should not dis­cour­age po­ten­tial re­cruits from an­swer­ing the call of du­ty to serve in an elite or­gan­i­sa­tion.He was speak­ing at the SRP re­cruit­ment ex­er­cise at Mu­cu­rapo Sec­ondary School, Mu­cu­rapo Road, St James, yes­ter­day.

Thomas said, "When you're suc­cess­ful in join­ing the ser­vice, that means you will have passed the ex­am, [been] vet­ted, do a pe­ri­od of train­ing, passed out and placed in uni­form."It's ba­si­cal­ly a short-sleeved uni­form, un­less you're placed in cer­tain po­lice units, and the rea­son that we don't want tat­toos is be­cause of the vis­i­bil­i­ty: You be­come a marked man.

"Some­times a po­lice of­fi­cer is un­der­cov­er and can with­hold his name, rank and se­r­i­al num­ber–but he can be iden­ti­fied by his drag­on or snake tat­too on his hand; that's why we spec­i­fy no vis­i­ble tat­toos."He said if a re­cruit's tat­too was on his back or up­per arm, it was per­mis­si­ble once it was cov­ered, but vis­i­ble tat­toos were a no-no.Thomas said over 10,000 males showed up for yes­ter­day's screen­ing, com­pared to over 40,000-plus male and fe­male can­di­dates in 2012.

The po­lice sergeant or­dered the men to roll up their sleeves in or­der to see the area from their el­bows to their shoul­der blades; he or­dered those with tat­toos to go to the left.He said if they tried to con­ceal their tat­toos with pow­der or make-up, they would be dis­cov­ered.Thomas said many cit­i­zens may wish to join one of the armed forces–ei­ther the po­lice, army or coast guard.

He said the po­lice ser­vice was a unique, elite or­gan­i­sa­tion, and there were op­por­tu­ni­ties for up­ward mo­bil­i­ty in the ranks. Some­one could join as a con­sta­ble and as­pire to be a com­mis­sion­er of po­lice, he said.He said SRP re­cruits, with five pass­es, can rise to join the reg­u­lar po­lice force and have many op­por­tu­ni­ties avail­able to them.


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