The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion (TTPSS­WA) has raised con­cerns about grow­ing of­fi­cer burnout, staff short­ages and pro­longed de­lays in pro­mo­tions, warn­ing that the is­sues are af­fect­ing morale with­in the po­lice ser­vice.

Speak­ing on CNC3’s The Morn­ing Brew pro­gramme yes­ter­day, TTPSS­WA as­sis­tant sec­re­tary Sgt (Ag) Tri­cia Du­rant-Charles said many of­fi­cers are ex­pe­ri­enc­ing phys­i­cal and men­tal ex­haus­tion af­ter years of be­ing re­quired to go be­yond their nor­mal du­ties.

“It’s a men­tal and phys­i­cal strain on your body, and what has been hap­pen­ing over the years, be­cause of­fi­cers have been called out to go above and be­yond their call of du­ty, you’re get­ting that lev­el of burnout with of­fi­cers. Now, the Com­mis­sion­er has start­ed to put mech­a­nisms in place to deal with some of the is­sues that of­fi­cers are fac­ing, but as fast as you give an of­fi­cer leave or you give him time to re­al­ly catch him­self, we have oth­er func­tions,” Du­rant-Charles said.