Police Welfare Head: Recruitment turnout encouraging

HEAD of the Police Social Welfare Association Gideon Dickson says the turnout of thousands of men for the TT Police Service recruitment drive on Friday is encouraging.

The TTPS recruitment drive saw the men show up at the St James Police Barracks in Port of Spain and the Municipal Police Training Academy, Tagore Avenue, Marabella.

The move is in line with plans by the government to increase the sanctioned strength of the TTPS this year.

Finance Minister Colm Imbert during the 2023/2024 budget presentation said the annual intake of new recruits in 2024 will be more than tripled from 300 to 1,000.

Dickson said the recruitment should help the TTPS to get from its current strength of approximately 6,500 officers to its required manpower figures of approximately 7,800.

He praised the men who applied and said the numbers spoke volumes about the TTPS and the population at large.

“It means that we are still doing something good and there are still civic-minded citizens out there wanting to contribute towards the scourge that happening in society right now. So something good happening somewhere.”

Dickson added, “The applicants, once they qualify to be in the police service then that means they are qualified to be elsewhere too and yet still they chose the police service. So it is an encouraging feeling.”

He addressed concerns that the majority of applicant cited job security rather than passion as the reason for applying.

Dickson said he believes the mindset of the police service being “just a job” will change as they move through the service.

“I understand a young person being in survival mode, being in a mode where they feel they need a job that has a level of security and this opportunity presents itself so they're coming out from where they are to come to try to do it.”

“I am also mindful that that mindset for most would change when they enter the barracks as a trainee and are exposed to training and are subsequently placed in divisions, sections and branches. It is no longer a job and it ought not to be a job. It is a profession.”

He warned that those who entered the police service for the wrong reason will realise soon enough that their mindset is incorrect.

“Sometimes because we went in with the wrong mindset, it doesn't cause us the opportunity to fulfil our truest potential.”

Dickson said he was confident however that the instructors in the police academy will continue to do what they have always done and motivate the recruits to become good officers.

However he said suggested that ultimately, the decision to become a good police officer is up to the applicants.

“It is very difficult for a six to nine months period of training to actually have that significant impact on your 18 to 35 years period on earth where you have already cultivated a particular manner.”

“However, your mindset, understanding that you are providing a service within a noble profession, understanding that the public has an expectation of you, that your family and your friends would also have an expectation of you and that you have offered yourself up to serve knowing fully well the trying times that we are in…I think (these) could also act as an impetus for persons who would have started on the mindset of a job.”

Dickson said while passion for a job is good, it is not essential to have passion to be good at a job.

“Passion always adds greater value intrinsically to anything that you do. It can always cause you to go above and beyond what is expected. So you will always operate in a zone where you are a high performer and you are excelling.”

“Even if you're not passionate, you can still do a good job. But your expectation then should not be for greater rewards than the person who excels.”