Shane Su­perville

Se­nior Re­porter

shane.su­perville@guardian.co.tt

Pres­i­dent of the T&T Po­lice So­cial Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion (TTPSS­WA) act­ing ASP Gideon Dick­son is call­ing on the Port-of-Spain City Cor­po­ra­tion to find prop­er ac­com­mo­da­tion for mu­nic­i­pal po­lice of­fi­cers as­signed to City Hall on Knox Street.

This fol­lows com­plaints that the women’s dor­mi­to­ry lo­cat­ed on the ground floor will not be avail­able to the of­fi­cers due to prepa­ra­tions for the in­au­gu­ra­tion of in­com­ing May­or Chin­ua Al­leyne and new Port-of-Spain coun­cil­lors on Thurs­day.

Dick­son, who spoke with Guardian Me­dia out­side City Hall yes­ter­day, said no clear in­struc­tions were giv­en on where women po­lice con­sta­bles (WPCs) would be housed if their dor­mi­to­ries are un­avail­able.

While speak­ing, Dick­son was told by an of­fi­cer that they re­ceived in­struc­tions from City Cor­po­ra­tion of­fi­cials that the dor­mi­to­ries will re­main where they are un­til ac­com­mo­da­tions can be made. He said while he hoped the mat­ter could be re­solved ex­pe­di­tious­ly, he pre­ferred to re­ceive such cor­re­spon­dence in writ­ing as con­cerns about prop­er ac­com­mo­da­tion for City po­lice of­fi­cers are not new.

“We would have sent cor­re­spon­dence in writ­ing and we await some­thing of­fi­cial from the ad­min­is­tra­tion for us to re­al­ly work to­wards re­solv­ing this mat­ter,” Dick­son said.

“This is a long out­stand­ing mat­ter and the of­fi­cers here con­tin­ue to give of them­selves and their fam­i­ly to the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go so we be­lieve it is the right thing to do in terms of find­ing a place so that they can com­fort­ably op­er­ate from in the best in­ter­est of the city of Port-of-Spain.

“To­day, in an at­tempt to avert the pos­si­ble re­moval of the fe­male of­fi­cers from the dor­mi­to­ry to put them nowhere. The big­ger pic­ture is for us as re­spon­si­ble lead­ers to find a place for the City Po­lice to per­form their du­ties.”

Dick­son said the of­fi­cers con­tin­ued to serve the city de­spite chal­lenges and worked along­side the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) for Car­ni­val and, the Com­mon­wealth Heads of Gov­ern­ment Meet­ing. He said they will al­so be present for the open­ing of the new Law Term.

He said the of­fi­cers are dis­ap­point­ed by the sud­den de­ci­sion.

Dick­son said he hoped City Cor­po­ra­tion of­fi­cials meet with the TTPSS­WA to dis­cuss these mat­ters; if no dis­cus­sions are held the as­so­ci­a­tion will seek re­dress.

“We will en­gage the process­es in­volved in in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions and we al­so know if there is no re­solve, there is al­ways a place to ar­bi­trate on is­sues of this na­ture,” he said.

Re­spond­ing to Guardian Me­dia’s ques­tions via What­sApp yes­ter­day, CEO of the Port-of-Spain City Cor­po­ra­tion An­nette Sta­ple­ton-Seaforth said, “The mat­ter is be­ing dealt with.”