TTPS QUARTERLY No.1 (1)

It was a sea of smiling faces on Friday 22nd April, 2016, when
the Commissioner of Police (Ag.), Stephen Williams, presided
over the single largest promotion of officers to the rank of
sergeant in the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service.
Four hundred and sixty (460) officers comprising 71 female
and 389 male officers were promoted to the rank of sergeant.
Topping the Merit List were first placed No. 12049 Sgt. Francis
Chattie followed by No. 16241 Sgt. Sophia Narine.
Previously, the largest single promotion to sergeant was in
2008 involving 235 officers with a further 162 by April, 2010.
It is, noteworthy that the single largest promotion among all
ranks was in May 2016, when 611 constables were made
corporals.
The actual strength of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service
as of August 25th, 2016, stood at 6,723 of which 5,027 are men
and 1,696 women. As is evident the service is quickly moving
towards a complement of 30% women officers. The
sanctioned strength of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service
is 7,884 regular officers.
In his address to officers, Commissioner Williams encouraged
them to lead by example and to be fair in their assessment and
evaluation of the performance of officers, under their
command, as this was important for the good of the service
and the nation.
He warned officers it would be ‘tough business’ to achieve
the desired reduction in firearm related violence and an
increase in the detection rate but that it was highly ‘doable’
given the fact they were able to drive down the rate of serious
reported crimes to 11,135 in 2015, which represented a 33 year
low.
According to the Commissioner, whilst the police have been
successful in removing 691 illegal firearms off the streets in
2015 and 260 for 2016 thus far, the challenge was the country’s
porous borders.
He lamented that the police alone cannot win the battle to rid
the country of illegal firearms.
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