Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves has highlighted the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force’s issue of being able to retain police officers, which has led to a reduction in the number experienced officers on the force.
The Prime Minister during a call to WE FM’s Issue At Hand program on Sunday noted that a notable number of officers have been leaving the force to join other police forces in the region as well as foreign armies.
“What happens in the police force is that we have been having a police force with a lot of young police officers because as police officers get a certain number of years, and as they reach ten years a number of them because of the ten year rule which allows them to cash out—you join the police force when you are twenty, you do ten years, you cash out when you’re thirty, you go and join the police force in the BVI, in Turks and Caicos, in Antigua, sometimes even a little bit earlier you go an join the British army, so we have a lot of young police men,” he said.
The Prime Minister while emphasizing the importance of being able to retain experienced police officers noted that a similar issue was addressed with the retention of the nation’s experienced nurses.
He noted that as Minister of National Security it is an issue that his ministry has grappled with and will continue to see it handled in the best way possible.
