Senior Reporter
kay-marie.fletcher@guardian.co.tt
Government is budgeting an $18 million decrease toward the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) overtime bill for fiscal 2025.
The revelation was made during a Standing Finance Committee (SFC) meeting yesterday, where National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds sought to explain the cut.
Hinds said the TTPS is working to decrease its overtime bill with the intent to get more productivity from monthly paid officers during regular working hours.
Hinds said, “The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service under the directive of the Minister of National Security, the Ministry of National Security and the Government by further extension, has been making consistent and sustained efforts to reduce the overtime bill. And at the same time to gain more effort and more productivity during regular work time from the men and women of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service and the effort is ongoing to continue to bring it down as we maximise productivity in usual normal working hours.”
A total of $2.6 billion has been allocated for the TTPS. However, Hinds said Commissioner of Police (CoP) Erla Harewood-Christopher would be making the necessary adjustments to keep overtime down.
“The Commissioner is mandated to rearrange the affairs of the deployments and shifts and all that she must do as leader of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service to gain more from the officers in their normal working hours so as to suppress and to reduce the need for overtime,” he added.
Asked by the Opposition if he believes this will decrease the morale of officers, Hinds said, “I don’t anticipate that this will tax or adversely affect the morale of the officers of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service.”
Guardian Media reached out to the union representing officers to see if they agreed.
The head of the Police Social and Welfare Association (TTPSSWA) ASP Gideon Dickson said if officers work overtime, they are expected to be paid.
“From a managerial perspective, I would like to know how much was allocated and how much was utilised before I even go with less being allocated and whether it would impact the morale of the officers. Because if officers do the work, they expect to get paid,” he said.
Dickson added he would like to know more about the decrease in allocation for overtime.
“It might have meant that you saved $18 million from the last fiscal (year). But in the last fiscal while you allocated $2.9 billion, this time you allocated $2.6 billion, so therefore everything would go down,” he added.
Meanwhile, during the Standing Finance Committee, Hinds also said the TTPS is considering having Special Reserve Police (SRP) officers absorbed into regular police exercises.
He said there’s a total of 3,004 SRPs.
Breaking it down, he said there are 2330 active full-time SRPs, 443 active part-time SRPs, 221 contracted full-time SRPs and 10 returnees.
And while there’s been a decrease in overtime allocation for the TTPS, the Opposition pleaded with the National Security Minister for more funds to be invested into police youth clubs to help steer young people away from crime.