As Barbados grapples with rising crime rates, the police service is embroiled in a morale crisis, with officers expressing deep frustration over unfulfilled promises of improved benefits and promotions, Barbados TODAY can report exclusively.
Despite Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s announcements last year to enhance allowances and create new ranks, the association representing rank-and-file police officers claims that the high command is not acting swiftly enough to implement these changes.
In defence of the senior command team (SCT), the Assistant Commissioner of Police Jefferson Clarke, who is responsible for human resources and administration, said that the answer to most of the officers’ grievances can be found in government policy and not the constabulary’s leadership.
But the Barbados Police Association has countered that delays in the implementation of the proposals to benefit the police, which were announced by Prime Minister Mottley in her Budget last year in March, can be placed at the feet of the SCT.
Ironically, when the prime minister announced the new allowances and regrading for the police last year and acknowledged that “these people have been working flat out over the last few years to stem the tide of lawlessness in Barbados and the increase especially in firearm-related violence”, she also admitted that “we have been slow in ensuring regrettably as a country that they have been treated fairly.”
She proposed that from April 1, the ranks of station sergeant, sergeant, and detective grade in The Barbados Police Service would be included in the schedule of the public officers’ loan and travel allowance (POLTA) so that they too can benefit from interest-free loans for their cars.
Mottley also announced the immediate establishment of the senior constable post to assist with more opportunities for promotions within the ranks “because we have over 300 police officers who are constables with more than 20 years’ experience”.
The prime minister, who is ministerial head of the public service, also told Parliament that there would be the establishment of a criminal investigation allowance to be paid to every detective, irrespective of rank, every month to reflect the serious nature of the work done within the police service, and this allowance must be negotiated as a matter of urgency within the next few months between the Barbados Police Association and the Ministry of Public Service. Mottley also said she hoped “we begin to redress some of these wrongs that should have been redressed [a] long time ago”.
It is now just over a year since Mottley made her announcement, and the association has said the only money paid out so far was for the detectives in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), who only received it a little more than three months ago.
BPA President Inspector Wendley Carter is adamant that the SCT is not acting urgently enough in pushing to have all the measures in place.
Inspector Carter told Barbados TODAY exclusively: “The Ministry of the Public Service is in the process of finalising the POLTA. It is a document that has to go before Parliament because the present POLTA only speaks about inspectors. What was mentioned in the Budget was station sergeant, sergeant, and detective constables. And the next one is payment for senior constables. We had a meeting with the senior command team on that on February 28 and the Ministry of Public Service because the senior command team wants to make certain requests in connection with the 20-year payment for police officers when they reach the 20 years.
“[The SCT] were to submit a document by the end of the week, and the end of the week was last week Friday [March 7], and to my knowledge, I don’t think it was submitted to the Ministry of Public Service as yet, because I think the process is taking long. I don’t think [the SCT] respond fast enough to get it done, and as a result, it delayed all like now.”
The association leader added: “The Ministry of the Public Service . . . [was] trying to get it completed by a certain time, but they had to wait for some documents coming back from the senior command team. So far, it is only one that was paid, the CID allowance. And as a result, we are getting queries that we only try to fight for the CID personnel, which was not true. We just fight for everybody, and it is fortunate that the CID one came through faster than the next two; and the CID one was only paid in November last year . . . that took a little while.”
Carter also revealed that the proposed creation of the senior constables’ post is facing a hurdle in that such a rank can only accommodate a limited number of officers.
He declared: “For instance, if you got ten people and you create a post for ten people . . . this is just a rough number . . . the next three years now you got 20 people that reach 20 years; and if these 10 before haven’t moved to be sergeant, that means the 20 cannot fill the 10 posts. So, we try to tell them, it should not be a post created because the number will fluctuate every two to three years. So, they are trying now not to create the post, but to create advancement that when you reach 20 years, you advance to this stage of senior constable.
“I am not siding with the ministry, but I think the ministry is doing its best; but I think the senior team is not treating it [the outstanding measures] with haste . . . because the first time the prime minister talked about it was in [March] and we had a meeting shortly afterward in April with the SCT to discuss certain things. A letter was sent off to the ministry, and the next correspondence pertaining to that from the SCT was in November. It is something that was discussed and why it took seven months, and the people do pressure us, they don’t pressure them.”
The police association leader also turned his attention to another grievance – delays in, or non-payment of, increments – an issue he disclosed that has law enforcers upset.
“One of the things we are fighting for now is increments . . . the people not getting their increments in a timely fashion. We got a number of police officers that have not been receiving their increments, and they’re upset about it,” the rank-and-file representative complained.
He drew attention to a recent situation where a female constable “sent in her papers to leave the service”. After checking, she discovered she was owed $25 000 in back pay “for not being paid her correct salary” during her career.
Inspector Carter pointed out that the issue had created “disharmony” for the officers who are owed increments. He recalled bringing the matter to the attention of Commissioner of Police Richard Boyce and his predecessor.
“It isn’t fair to the police because we got crime increasing, and we working hard and people not getting what they are due,” he added.
The BPA president also revealed that some of the brightest officers were leaving the service because they are no longer being paid for their academic qualifications.
“All of a sudden, that seemed to stop and nobody can’t tell us who stopped it or why,” he said. “People are coming into the service and when they realised that, they are leaving. And all of those things we put to the AG in our meeting, and he stated he will be looking into them as soon as he can.”
Inspector Carter also disclosed that even now, with detectives receiving the new allowances for their normal 12-hour-per-day work, uniformed police officers are preferring not to transition to the detective branch, reasoning that they can make more money in their area, working the same hours.
“If you calculate the payment for a CID person working 12 hours, they were being paid under the minimum wages in Barbados when they put in 12 hours a day. And that was going on for a long time. Although the allowances are a little better, they still do not cover for the 12 hours they have to work. But they are grateful at this time, and hope for the future, it would be better,” said the inspector, himself a former detective.
In response, Acting Commissioner Clarke said the issues outlined by the association are before the Public Service Ministry and the Attorney General’s Office.
“Those are ministry things. We have written to the MPS, Ministry of the Public Service, and we are just awaiting [an answer] from them. Those are things we acted on. You know, once you act, then somebody else has to take action. So, that’s where we are at,” ACP Clarke told Barbados TODAY, pointing out that the relevant document was submitted to the ministry since last year.
“It’s not with us,” he contended. “All of these are matters in the bosom now of the MPS, and we are awaiting their action, their response.”
On the question of increments and the payment for academic qualifications, the senior police officer said the government would have to address those issues, explaining that “we don’t create policy, we just work within the policy framework”.
Regarding the claim that uniformed officers could receive more money than detectives if they worked the same 12 hours a day, the assistant commissioner argued that the introduction of the new allowance is meant to address that.
“They were just paid an allowance in lieu of the fact that they would work more hours than the uniformed people. The uniformed people would work eight hours, the CID people work 12 hours. So, the allowance is supposed to bring them on par. These are things I must say that government is currently addressing. When I say government, I mean the [Ministry of the Public Service] or the AG’s Office. These are all things that are live issues that are being addressed. It’s not that people are twiddling their thumbs and not addressing them. These might not be moving ahead at the pace the association wants them to move, but these things take time,” the police administrator insisted.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
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