17,000 apply for 1,000 jobs

OVER 17,000 applicants have responded to newspaper advertisements to write a Special Reserve Police (SRP) exam which is set for Saturday in all nine police divisions. However, only 1,000 will be chosen. Senior Superintendents of all Divisions met yesterday with Acting Commissioner of Police Everald Snaggs to discuss the situation. “It’s over 17,004 and counting,” a senior officer told Newsday yesterday, adding that it would be a tussle when the applicants come for their results on August 27 (next Wednesday). The 1,000 SRPs will not be chosen on that day, however.  Senior police officers said the first elimination process will be a dictation test to see how academically inclined the applicants are. Afterwards senior officers said another elimination process will be done on another date, but it was not divulged when during yesterday’s lengthy meeting.

The 17,000-odd applicants have come from all over Trinidad and Tobago, with just over 500 coming from the sister isle. The most came from the Northern and Southern Divisions which pooled over 3,000 each. By today, sources said, the exam venues in all of the nine police divisions will be known.  The issue of the 1,000 extra police officers was raised when on July 23 Minister of National Security Howard Chin Lee said that 1,000 more police officers will be deployed on the streets in the new war on crime. It was later revealed that the 1,000 officers were going to be retired police officers. However, Police Association President Acting Insp Christopher Holder protested saying that the country needs young professional police officers to patrol the streets, highways, alleys, fields, hills, rivers and coastal areas, and therefore the physical output required to achieve these objectives cannot be met by retirees.

Holder proposed a short term (one year) injection of the 1,000 SRPs instead of retired officers. He outlined some advantages of this recommendation, saying that unemployment  would be reduced by employing young unemployed citizens; that many young citizens would be seen as leaders in the fight against crime, and that other young citizens may be motivated to come forward and assist the police in their fight against crime. Holder said some retirees should be contracted for a short period to conduct classroom training for the proposed 1,000 SRPs. Additionally, he said, all existing officers who have “excess vacation leave” can be utilised by “buying out their vacation leave.” Snaggs had said that the Association’s recommendations are meaningful and will assist the Police Service and Government.