Police Welfare Association (PWA) President Camron Laure, highlighting the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force (RSLPF) resource needs, disclosed that officers share bulletproof vests.
“You have police officers today still sharing a bulletproof vest. You know, that you come to work, you are being given a bulletproof vest to perform your duties. You drop it back at the end of your tour and the tour that’s coming in uses that very same vest,” Laure explained.
He described the situation as unacceptable.
In this regard, Laure emphasized the need for every officer to receive personal protective equipment.
He explained that the job was dangerous and the risks were higher.
The PWA President spoke Wednesday night during the DBS Television programme, Newsmaker Live.
He acknowledged awareness of the government’s assertion that it had provided unprecedented vehicles and equipment to the RSLPF.
However, he declared that the vehicles and equipment were replacements.
The PWA President disclosed that he had yet to see a significant equipment presentation to the RSLPF since the 2007 Cricket World Cup.
” Since that time, it has been replacing. So we have not had any significant increase in terms of vehicles and equipment needed,” Laure told Newsmaker Live.
He said it would be interesting to know what the RSLPF leadership requests from the government.
“Are they requesting adequate vests? Are they saying that we only need thirty vehicles because we have thirty vehicles that we need to decommission, or are they saying really and truly we need 60 to seventy new vehicles in addition to what is going to be decommissioned?”
The PWA President recalled hearing a government minister assert that most of the time, the police receive what they request.
“So you have to ask yourself, does the leadership of the police force have the best interests of the men and women who serve on the ground?” Laure asked.
He revealed that morale in the RSLPF was ‘mixed’, explaining that officers essentially want to work.
“They want to make a difference in what is happening in our country, but they also speak of how are they going to get that done – the lack of equipment,” the PWA official stated.
Nevertheless, Laure commended the officers who risked their lives and their families’ lives in performing their duties.
He spoke amid a deadly crime surge that as of Wednesday, had resulted in 30 homicides, mostly due to gun-violence.
