Shane Su­perville

Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Roger Alexan­der is call­ing on po­lice of­fi­cers to re­main com­mit­ted to serv­ing the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty, as he urged the lead­er­ship of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) to act against those who may be pre­tend­ing to be ill to avoid du­ty.

In an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia on Tues­day, Alexan­der said he was ready to be­gin work on ab­sorb­ing Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice (SRP) of­fi­cers in­to the broad­er po­lice ser­vice. How­ev­er, he stressed that all of­fi­cers shared the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of build­ing a more se­cure na­tion.

As part of his en­gage­ments this week, Alexan­der plans to meet with the TTPS So­cial Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion (TTPSS­WA), stat­ing he was will­ing to of­fer “full sup­port” for the well-be­ing of of­fi­cers.

While re-mo­ti­vat­ing the po­lice force was es­sen­tial, Alexan­der in­sist­ed that those who ne­glect­ed their re­spon­si­bil­i­ties should be held ac­count­able. He pro­posed that of­fi­cers on pro­longed sick leave, par­tic­u­lar­ly those with out­stand­ing med­ical cer­tifi­cates, be brought be­fore a board to as­sess their con­di­tion.

“They are count­ed as be­ing part of the strength of the po­lice ser­vice, but they are not ac­tive,” he said.

“Don’t run from the job. The coun­try is de­pend­ing on you. Don’t run. Stand up and let’s fight this to­geth­er.”

Draw­ing on his own ex­pe­ri­ence in op­er­a­tional and crime-fight­ing units, Alexan­der said it was vi­tal to keep of­fi­cers mo­ti­vat­ed and vis­i­ble.

“If po­lice of­fi­cers are en­er­gised and on the streets, it gives us a bet­ter chance to sup­press crime,” he said.