Barbados Police Service Faces Recruitment Challenges Due to Lack of Accommodation Facilities, Attorney General Reveals
July 23, 2024
Insufficient accommodation facilities in Barbados Police Service lead to turning away women recruits annually. Efforts to address the issue include a partnership with the US for new dormitories at the training center.
A significant number of women are being turned away from joining The Barbados Police Service (TBPS) each year due to insufficient accommodation facilities, Attorney General Dale Marshall revealed on Monday.
Speaking at a signing ceremony to launch the partial renovation of the Regional Police Training Centre, Marshall admitted: “Every year we have to turn away a significant number of women simply because we can’t physically accommodate them.”
The attorney general highlighted ongoing challenges in police recruitment: “Recruitment of police officers is obviously a challenge. I’m happy to say we’ve done a little bit better in the last two cohorts than we had previously when I became AG.”
Marshall noted a concerning trend in recent years: “I think in my second year as AG we saw the recruitment class drop as low as 18. That tells a story when you only have 18 young men and women interested in joining the police service at any given time.”
But, he reported some improvement: “Our last graduating cohort, I think the number was just over 60.”
The attorney general acknowledged that the police service has struggled to attract young people for many years and has failed to meet the required enrolment established four or five decades ago. Currently, there are 1 251 police officers and 46 special constables in service.
In a move to address the accommodation shortage, Marshall announced a partnership with the United States to build two new dormitories at the Regional Police Training Centre. The project involves a $6 million investment from Barbados and $1.1 million from the US government.
“In addition to the existing capacity, we will have the ability to add an extra 60 recruits if we could reach that capacity,” Marshall explained. Each new dormitory will house 30 recruits.
US Ambassador to Barbados Roger Nyhus emphasised Washington’s commitment to improving regional security in the Caribbean.
“Regional security is one of the most important issues we work on on a daily basis,” he said. “From the RSS [Regional Security System] to CARICOM IMPACS [Implementation Agency for Crime and Security] to so many other organisations that are really designed to do one thing —make it safer for the people of Barbados and those who visit that they people should not be fearing violent crime, they should not be fearing any sort of crime in an ideal world.”
Ambassador Nyhus added: “I think having these enhanced facilities will make it easier for folks from throughout the region to come and get trained and it’s something that the US fully supports and hopefully we will continue to make investments in this area.”
The signing ceremony took place at the Attorney General’s Office in Webster’s Business Park, Wildey.
(SZB)
