Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice (SRP) of­fi­cers are again voic­ing frus­tra­tion over un­re­solved is­sues, in­clud­ing calls for ab­sorp­tion in­to the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS), im­proved re­tire­ment pack­ages, and bet­ter work­ing con­di­tions.

In an ad­ver­tise­ment pub­lished in the T&T Guardian yes­ter­day, the SRPs ac­cused for­mer po­lice com­mis­sion­ers and the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice So­cial Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion (TTP­SWA) of mak­ing false promis­es and feed­ing them lies.

The ad, ti­tled No Jus­tice for SRPs, stat­ed, “In­stead, the as­so­ci­a­tion sees oth­er things to be more rel­e­vant than the wel­fare of the SRPs, which begs the ques­tion: Could the TTP­SWA rep­re­sent the SRPs and, if not, why are they tak­ing mon­ey from them if not to on­ly give them false hope and dreams us­ing ab­sorp­tion as a po­lit­i­cal tac­tic every year to be elect­ed.”

Of­fi­cers claimed their con­cerns have fall­en on deaf ears.

They com­plained the au­thor­i­ties have failed to amend the act that gov­erns the TTPS to hire SRPs and im­ple­ment prop­er reg­u­la­tions and sys­tems to im­prove their well-be­ing “that will eman­ci­pate them rather than hold them hostage.” 

Claim­ing they feel de­mor­alised, dis­re­spect­ed, and tak­en for grant­ed by TTPS, they are now ap­peal­ing to Act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Ju­nior Ben­jamin to ad­dress their con­cerns.

How­ev­er, TTP­SWA pres­i­dent Gideon Dick­son re­ject­ed the SRPs’ claims, call­ing them “a bit mis­lead­ing and er­ro­neous.” 

He said the as­so­ci­a­tion nev­er promised the SRPs ab­sorp­tion in­to the TTPS. Dick­son said that process could on­ly be done through the gov­ern­ment and the last time it oc­curred was in 2000. How­ev­er, he said in 2009 SRP of­fi­cers were linked to the reg­u­lar ser­vice. 

Dick­son em­pha­sized that the as­so­ci­a­tion has been ad­vo­cat­ing for SRPs and that a com­mit­tee was formed to sub­mit rec­om­men­da­tions to aid in the cre­ation of prop­er reg­u­la­tions. 

“We are aware that was sent for­ward for con­sid­er­a­tion to the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty,” said Dick­son, who added that an at­tor­ney was re­tained in this mat­ter.

Dick­son said he has al­ready had a brief con­ver­sa­tion with Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les about this mat­ter. 

“We, the as­so­ci­a­tion will al­so be glad to see a lot more of our Spe­cial Re­serve of­fi­cers in­te­grat­ed or ab­sorbed in­to the reg­u­lar po­lice ser­vice but that again is not a rite of pas­sage, that is a gov­ern­ment de­ci­sion. I have al­ready en­gaged the cur­rent Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty for con­sid­er­a­tion along those lines, but we will not sell it as an en­ti­tle­ment. “What we will sell as an en­ti­tle­ment is the reg­u­la­tion which they are en­ti­tled to, which will fix all their terms and con­di­tions as of­fi­cers.”

Dick­son ex­plained that once the is­sue of reg­u­la­tion is dealt with is­sues of pro­mo­tion, va­ca­tion leave, al­lowances and spe­cial du­ties, will be ad­dressed. 

He said be­cause of the ad­vo­ca­cy on the as­so­ci­a­tion’s part, SRPs re­ceived Cost of Liv­ing Al­lowance (CO­LA), meals, back pay, and in­cre­ments.  Nei­ther Min­is­ter Gon­za­les nor act­ing Com­mis­sion­er Ben­jamin could be reached for com­ment.