Police association wants special allowance for single parent cops

This proposal is one of the many in a package which was delivered to Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) Beresford Riley on Friday last for the period 2014 to 2016.

On January 10, the CPO invited the association, led by Inspector Michael Seales, to submit proposals.

Seales delivered those proposals in which the association proposed a 13.5 percent increase in salaries.

Yesterday Seales defended the position saying, “13.5 percent is substantially lower than what we would have settled for before and, more importantly, it is much lower than what is available for the market for compensation for police officers.

On the last occasion the market survey would have generated 16 percent market shift which would have been available for officers had we been able to negotiate the full 16 percent.” About the proposal to pay a $2000 allowance to single police officers with children, Seales said information reaching the association suggests that it is extremely difficult for those officers to survive on existing salaries.

“More than 15 percent of the workforce consists of single parents.” One of the other proposals, according to Seales, is a new allowance which is the Community Police Unit allowance to foster a strategy to help communities rebuild themselves and be able to have that relationship with the police to make the communities a stronger one.

Seales believes by encouraging the Community Police Unit to partner with the public, they will have a better incentive to carry out this mandate if they are given this $1500 allowance.

He also revealed that the association is asking for a merit allowance for divisional commanders whose strategies result in crime being decreased by 50 percent.

He said one of the major proposals also include an off duty callout allowance where officers who are on vacation leave and called out to work for two weeks or more could be paid $3,000 monthly for the duration of the call-out.

Additionally, the association is also asking the CPO to consider the re-absorption of all special reserve police officers into the service.