The Trinidad and To­ba­go Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice Ser­vice (TTMPS) has been aug­ment­ed with the ad­di­tion of 115 new Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice Con­sta­bles, who took the oath of of­fice at the Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice Train­ing Acad­e­my in Mara­bel­la, yes­ter­day, Mon­day 11 May 2020.

The new Con­sta­bles took their oaths in batch­es of six, in or­der to min­i­mize the num­ber of per­sons con­gre­gat­ing in a giv­en area, in ob­ser­vance of the so­cial dis­tanc­ing and oth­er spe­cial guide­lines is­sued by the Min­istry of Health, to stem the spread of COVID-19.

The new of­fi­cers will be de­ployed to the Port of Spain City Cor­po­ra­tion, San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion, Ari­ma Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion and the Point Fortin Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion.

In de­liv­er­ing the fea­ture ad­dress at the Swear­ing-in Cer­e­mo­ny, Min­is­ter of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment, Sen­a­tor Ha­ji Kaz­im Ho­sein, com­mend­ed the grad­u­ates for suc­cess­ful­ly re­spond­ing to a di­rect call by the Prime Min­is­ter to join the ranks of the TTMPS, and to pro­vid­ing a sense of se­cu­ri­ty to their com­mu­ni­ties.

“Com­mu­ni­ty se­cu­ri­ty is one of the most im­por­tant man­dates of the Min­istry of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment,” the Min­is­ter not­ed. “The safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty of burgess­es is of crit­i­cal im­por­tance and you, Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice Of­fi­cers, play a sig­nif­i­cant role in en­sur­ing that safe­ty.”

Min­is­ter Ho­sein re­port­ed that Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice Con­sta­bles re­ceive train­ing equiv­a­lent to that of of­fi­cers in the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS). He urged the new Con­sta­bles to ex­hib­it pride in their new pro­fes­sion.

“You must be hon­est and con­sis­tent in your com­mit­ment to qual­i­ty cus­tomer ser­vice,” Min­is­ter Ho­sein told the grad­u­ates, “and to al­ways main­tain a du­ty of care in the ex­e­cu­tion of your du­ties. Re­main hum­ble, avoid cor­rupt prac­tices and al­ways have God in your thoughts, as you work dili­gent­ly in ser­vice to your fel­low man.”

Yes­ter­day’s swear­ing-in cer­e­mo­ny fol­lowed a spe­cial meet­ing (held on Mon­day May 4th 2020) with the Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion Sen­a­tor Allyson West; rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Statu­to­ry Au­thor­i­ties Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (SASC); Pub­lic Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PSC); Chief Per­son­nel Of­fice (CPO); Min­istry of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al and Le­gal Af­fairs; and se­nior of­fi­cials of the TTMPS.

That meet­ing was con­vened as part of con­tin­ued ef­forts to elim­i­nate chal­lenges be­tween the SASC and the PSC, which would pre­vent the re­cruit­ment of a new batch of Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice trainees. Min­is­ter Ho­sein re­port­ed that those dis­cus­sions were fruit­ful and will pave the way for the re­cruit­ment of a fur­ther 378 re­cruits, in the near fu­ture. 

The com­ple­ment of of­fi­cers with­in the Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice Ser­vice has in­creased from 216 of­fi­cers in 2016, to 737 of­fi­cers, in­clu­sive of the co­hort of 115 Con­sta­bles, sworn-in on Mon­day.

Min­is­ter Ho­sein gave spe­cial com­men­da­tion to those Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice of­fi­cers en­gaged in hu­man­i­tar­i­an ef­forts dur­ing the cur­rent COVID-19 cri­sis, co­or­di­nat­ing food dri­ves and bring­ing much need­ed sup­port to com­mu­ni­ties across Trinidad.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, the Min­is­ter not­ed the ex­ten­sive col­lab­o­ra­tion that has been tak­ing place be­tween the TTPS and the TTMPS through­out all 14 mu­nic­i­pal­i­ties, which has led to pro­vi­sion of joint pa­trols, en­force­ment of reg­u­la­tions out­lined in the Pub­lic Health Or­di­nance, and pro­vi­sion of ad­di­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty to all cit­i­zens.

Sen­a­tor Ho­sein al­so ac­knowl­edged the fam­i­lies of law en­force­ment of­fi­cers and en­cour­aged the new Con­sta­bles, and all of­fi­cers present, to do the same.

“As a law en­force­ment of­fi­cer, you are of­ten called up­on to make dif­fi­cult de­ci­sions and sac­ri­fices. In those times, it is your fam­i­ly that will be there for you,” he told the grad­u­ates. “Al­ways ap­pre­ci­ate your fam­i­lies be­cause, in ad­di­tion to be­ing your sup­port sys­tem, they al­so are mak­ing a sac­ri­fice for the greater good of our coun­try.”

Present at yes­ter­day’s grad­u­a­tion ex­er­cise was the Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary at the Min­istry of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment, Des­dra Bas­combe; the Deputy Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary, Ray­mond Seep­aul; Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice, Ce­cil San­tana; and Utara Ali, the Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer for Statu­to­ry Au­thor­i­ties Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (SASC).