Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams has directed that the recruitment of Special Reserve Police officers (SRPs) be put on hold immediately. This, he says, is now critical because the Police Service needs to intensify background checks of prospective candidates to ensure undesirables do not infiltrate the service.
The move comes in wake of information unearthed by the Police Service Social and Welfare Association that there has been an “influx” of criminals and drug users joining the service as SRPs to conduct nefarious activities. Contacted yesterday, Williams said he gave the directive to ensure that those seeking to be SRPs in future not only meet the necessary requirements but also embodied characteristics of a police officer who would serve and protect with honour and fairness at all times.
“I need to ensure that I am selecting the right people for not only entering the SRP but also the Police Service. I must ensure the Police Service has people of good character and meet all the necessary requirements, not just some. We need people of integrity. “And these characteristics must meet the necessary endorsement of the citizens of this land,” Williams added.
Asked if the directive also stemmed from recent cases of SRP and police officers being involved in untoward activities, Williams reiterated his call was to ensure proper screening of applicants. “I am not saying that. I am saying I wanted to be sure there be proper and thorough background checks on all applicants,” he said.
He said some of the checks entailed going into the communities where the applicants lived and gathering information. “The checks are ongoing and are expected to be completed within a month or so,” Williams added.
However, the Police Service Social and Welfare Association is insisting that the move only came about because it was discovered there were “bandits posing as police.” Association secretary, Insp Michael Seales, said yesterday the situation may have developed under then national security minister Jack Warner, when there was a move to ramp up the recruitment process of SRPs to supplement the strength of the service.
“It had reached to the point where the SRPs were outnumbering the regular police officers. The association would have raised concerns to the commissioner after we became aware of unsavory characters within the fold,” Seales said. “This only came to light when due to the influx of SRPs, many of whom were trying to enter the Police Service, they therefore had to undergo medical, polygraph and psychometric tests.
“We unearthed characters who admitted to having criminal backgrounds and persons admitted to drug use. One particular person admitted to smoking marijuana more than 3,000 times. So there was a growing influx of SRPs who were in fact criminals,” Seales said. He said the association immediately went to the acting top cop with that information.
“The commissioner also spoke of some instances which came to his attention and we would have taken a position to stop further recruitment of the SRPs so as to clean up the system,” Seales said. He added that steps were also being taken to weed out criminals posing as SRPs, as Williams had the authority to revoke such appointments under Section 12 of the SRP Act.
“We have criminals and drug users under the guise of SRPs. Not all SRPs fit this bill but this is the reality of the situation which is indeed a sad and pathetic state of affairs,” Seales said.
Simple process
To become an SRP, the applicant simply has to be able bodied and between 18 to 60 and possesses “no real education.” Seales said SRP recruits were also not subjected to rigorous tests like polygraph and psychometric tests. He said the association was in full support of Williams halting the recruitment process. “More often than not SRPs are outnumbering regular police officers because they work by themselves instead of working along with the regular officers and that is another problem.
“When you look at the whole question of delivery of service, the SRPs need to work with the regular police officers and they are not doing so. This is diminishing the service provided to the public,” Seales added.