Police officers want the Mia Mottley administration to let them retire at 55, warning that rising gun risks and younger, more brazen criminals make plans to keep them on the streets into their late 60s untenable, Barbados TODAY can reveal.
The Police Association’s president, acting Assistant Superintendent Wendley Carter, said on Tuesday that the current pensionable age of 67 – which the government plans to raise in the coming years – was no longer fit for purpose for officers confronting a new type of criminal on the streets of Barbados.
He said: “Imagine a 68-year-old officer fighting with a 20-year-old boy. There is only one way that is going to go.
“[There are] more risks than when I first started in 1985. In 1985 we didn’t have so many guns. You could have felt comfortable patrolling without a firearm; but these days, that’s a no-no. We have to look at the retirement age too, because we made a submission for that. You can’t have police officers who are 68 years old patrolling the streets of Barbados.”
In the House of Assembly, making a ministerial statement on the revitalisation of the National Insurance Scheme this morning, Labour Minister Colin Jordan announced several measures to stabilise the social security system, including an increase in the pensionable age.
In 2028, the pensionable age will rise from 67 to 67½, and in 2034 to 68.
The number of contributions required to qualify for a pension is also to increase, from 500 weeks to 750 weeks.
The age at which people can first qualify for an early pension has also been adjusted, rising from 60 to 61 in 2025, 62 in 2028, and 63 in 2031.
Police officers also want a pension scheme separate from national insurance and social security, ASP Carter said.
He explained: “We fall under the government, so we fall under the same pension age. [Meanwhile] the soldiers are allowed to retire at 55 after 25 years of service. They have a different pension scheme. We fall under the National Pension Scheme. Right now we don’t have any special treatment. We made a representation about the police getting a different [scheme] to the national pension.
“One of the things we recommended was 55 years – can’t remember how many years service it was but I know they will say that if you leave at 55, there would be a shortage of police officers.”
But ASP Carter argued that more attractive financial benefits would give officers a stronger incentive to remain in the profession.
“Once you bring good benefits to the police service, you would have an increase in the police. People would come and go. So if they are not seeing any benefits [they are not going to stay]. Before, people were doing things for the love of the job. You see a job and you love it. But now, if you don’t have good dollars and cents, people are not loving it anymore; you are not having any loyalty anymore.”
The association president said that, while the service continued to recruit, officers were leaving as soon as opportunities offering better pay and terms arose outside the constabulary.
He identified the Central Bank of Barbados and the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill as two of the main organisations attracting younger police officers.
He added: “We are recruiting, but then when the people get better offers like the Central Bank and the UWI…because if you could get more there as a constable…people looking at short-terms; people are not looking at long-terms. So, they out and gone. We just had two police who went over to the government security services in better positions and better pay. They went to higher positions.
“We put all of this to the government through the commissioner, so it is a work in progress.”
But he said the report on the recent job evaluation across the public service was receiving considerable attention at the moment.
The BPA president said the assessment’s recommendations should bode well for the recognition of the value of police officers’ duties and responsibilities.
“It [regrading] shows the value of the job we are in and the risk. It deals with risks. It would raise some positions in it. It is research that was done, but nothing has been finalised as yet. They interviewed everybody from every rank, even the special constables, to see the jobs that we have been doing for the last 191 years.”
Carter also revealed that the organisation was considering advocating for the right to represent all police officers, including the commissioner.
He noted that, if he were promoted now, he would have to step down as president and give up his membership of the police welfare body.
(EJ)
