Sufficient boots remain on the ground says Deputy Commissioner

By: EldontÉ Samuel

Despite claims of police officers leaving the force to pursue other careers in security becoming an issue, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Frankie Joseph has sought to dispel such claims.

“Persons would always look for greener pastures. It is not anything new, and it is not anything strange that police officers are leaving St Vincent and the Grenadines, resigning from the police force and joining other forces,” Joseph told SEARCHLIGHT Thursday, May 16,2024.

Recently, information has been in the public domain that large numbers of new officers are leaving the Royal St Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force (RSVGPF), to enrol in the British Navy or the British Army and that it was becoming an issue for the police here.

Joseph said that it has not become an issue for the RSVGPF, and they fully endorse any new officer who wants to spread their wings and gain experience elsewhere.
“With persons leaving, it really and truly [is] not affecting the smooth flowing of the organisation because we are functioning…some of them say that it is because of family reasons, while some just want greener pastures really,” said the Deputy Commissioner.

Joseph, however, made it clear that it will be become an issue if several officers decide to leave the force at any one time, adding that losing senior officers will always be an issue for the RSVGPF.

“Once you are losing experience from the organisation, obviously it would be some concern, but most of the persons that are leaving are relatively young persons with just a few years service,” he pointed out.

“Notwithstanding that, it will always be a cause of concern if you have a large number of persons resigning from the organisation, it would be a cause of concern,” he stressed.

Joseph shared that the police force on a continuous basis, receives applications from nationals wanting to enlist.

“On file we having around 1000 police applications where young people would have applied for the force, we just passed out 113, and we are accepting applications every day.”

Following the passing out of the new recruits this year, a few persons commented online that the 113 new officers will not be enough to replace the number of those who recently left the RSVGPF.

Responding to this, Joseph said this scenario was nothing new because, “when you pass out new recruits, you will always have a few vacancies because you would have persons retiring, you would have persons resigning, so by time you finish training a bunch of recruits for six months, obviously there will be a few vacancies”.