CoP: Police service a gender-neutral organisation

As Trinidad and Tobago joins the rest of the world in marking International Women's Day, Police Commissioner Gary Griffith said the police have done their part in promoting gender equality, as women occupy every rank, unit and division in the organisation.

Speaking at the police weekly media press briefing on Sackville Street, Port of Spain, on Monday, Griffith said unlike other organisations in different countries where the disparity between men and women was glaring, frequent assessments were done within the police to ensure an even distribution of men and women.

He also said focus was placed on maintaining a safe workplace environment for women in the service.

"Very few organisations inclusive of this country in the private and public sector can state and be confident to say that they do a constant review of the ratio of men to women employed in their company, and not just the number employed but also payscales, promotion, training opportunities and the posts that they hold.

"I have acquired more female acting DCPs during my tenure as commissioner, and not just because they are women, but because they are good and they earned their post on merit, In fact, two of the three present acting DCPs are female.

"Likewise women police officers are no longer assigned to specific roles in law enforcement, but every aspect of the police you can find women, and it varies from executive positions to the Special Branch, the Guard and Emergency Branch, Cyber Crime, Homicide, white-collar crime and even in the Special Operation Response Team."

In 1955 there were only 12 WPCs. Today women account for 35 per cent of the total of the total 8,000 active officers in the service.

Griffith said the police had also done their part to lobby for stronger legislation and policy against gender-based violence, citing the establishment of the Gender-Based Violence Unit and calling for pepper spray to be made more accessible to women, while encouraging more women to apply for Firearms Users' Licences (FUL).