Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

De­spite par­tic­i­pat­ing in a po­lice re­cruit­ment ex­er­cise in To­ba­go, many fe­male ap­pli­cants ad­mit­ted to be­ing pet­ri­fied of the crime sit­u­a­tion in the coun­try.

Close to 400 ap­pli­cants went through a ver­i­fi­ca­tion process yes­ter­day at the Dwight Yorke Sta­di­um, Ba­co­let.

It was the first stage of the months-long ex­er­cise, with ap­pli­cants pre­sent­ing their five CSEC pass­es, dri­ver’s per­mit and na­tion­al iden­ti­fi­ca­tion.

Mem­bers of the Fraud Squad and Gang In­tel­li­gence Unit were al­so present to make sure all doc­u­ments were le­git­i­mate, and that the ap­pli­cants met the stan­dard of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS).

In an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia as she await­ed her ap­point­ment, Youmelee Al­leyne, 26, said she will be an as­set to help up­hold the law. How­ev­er, she ac­knowl­edged the brazen­ness of crim­i­nals has left her “very scared.”

She said To­ba­go car­ries its own chal­lenges, but she be­lieves crime in Trinidad is out of con­trol.

Asked if she was open to be sta­tioned in Trinidad, Al­leyne dis­missed that op­tion com­plete­ly.

“I will not be will­ing to go to Trinidad. Trinidad crime just dif­fer­ent. I don’t think Trinida­di­ans afraid of po­lice,” she said.

While de­scrib­ing the job as “a risk,” she said she has a fam­i­ly to pro­vide for and needs the em­ploy­ment.

So­raya Birus­ingh, 20, whose both par­ents are of­fi­cers, wants to con­tin­ue the fam­i­ly lega­cy.

“That would have giv­en me the mo­ti­va­tion to serve in the pub­lic sphere ... I did get the en­cour­age­ment to ap­ply be­cause of the dif­fer­ent ben­e­fits and perks af­ter you re­tire,” she said.

Birus­ingh said re­duc­ing crime in To­ba­go is her mo­ti­va­tion and be­lieves more com­mu­ni­ty pa­trols are re­quired.

A fe­male ap­pli­cant from Mo­ri­ah, who wished to re­main anony­mous, said be­ing on the front-line against crime is an un­pleas­ant thought. How­ev­er, she hopes—if suc­cess­ful—that she can be in­volved in com­mu­ni­ty polic­ing.

She claimed there is a drug abuse prob­lem among youths in To­ba­go and ad­vo­cates for a com­mu­ni­ty unit to help men­tor young peo­ple.

Geron Al­leyne, 30, who runs a tech busi­ness sell­ing lap­top parts and cell­phones, said he is look­ing for a new chal­lenge.

“I’ve al­ways been in In­for­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy (IT), but I got fed up of that work­flow. I still have some youth in me, so I de­cid­ed to give this a chance,” he said.

Al­leyne said his rel­a­tives were not pleased with his de­ci­sion to ap­ply as they felt he made enough mon­ey from his busi­ness. How­ev­er, he point­ed out there are many as­pects to polic­ing and be­lieves his tech skills would come in handy.

While ac­knowl­edg­ing the crime sit­u­a­tion, ap­pli­cant Chavez Arthur said he wants to bet­ter him­self and be a role mod­el for his child.

Kristo­pher Al­lian, 30, said hon­esty, sin­cer­i­ty and be­ing self-mo­ti­vat­ed are key qual­i­ties of be­ing a po­lice of­fi­cer.

He told Guardian Me­dia he is ea­ger and ready to serve the TTPS wher­ev­er he is re­quired.

While sta­bil­i­ty was a mo­ti­vat­ing fac­tor for many, 19-year-old Ben-Is­rael Ban­nis­ter said be­ing a cop has been his child­hood dream.

“Since I was small I al­ways want­ed to be a po­lice of­fi­cer. I used to watch plen­ty po­lice shows.

“It’s all about help­ing peo­ple. So I just feel like that is just what mo­ti­vate me,” he said.

Ob­serv­ing the ex­er­cise close­ly was WPC Suzette Wal­ters, who re­called the nerves she felt ap­ply­ing to the ser­vice 25 years ago.

She said an im­por­tant ap­proach to polic­ing was fo­cus­ing on the serv­ing as­pect of the TTPS mot­to, as build­ing pub­lic trust is cru­cial to the suc­cess of the ser­vice.