“Voices in Blue” outlines vision ahead of TTPS Welfare Association election

Rox­anne Paul, a can­di­date in the up­com­ing elec­tions of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion (TTPSS­WA), has clar­i­fied that Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice Of­fi­cers are not el­i­gi­ble for mem­ber­ship in the As­so­ci­a­tion.

Paul, who is con­test­ing the post of Sec­re­tary on the Voic­es in Blue slate and spokesper­son for Team VIB, said the TTPSS­WA was es­tab­lished un­der Sec­tion 27 of the Po­lice Ser­vice Act, Chap­ter 15:01. This leg­is­la­tion, she not­ed, ap­plies sole­ly to of­fi­cers of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) and not to those em­ployed by mu­nic­i­pal cor­po­ra­tions.

“The As­so­ci­a­tion is legal­ly man­dat­ed to rep­re­sent on­ly TTPS of­fi­cers. Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice Of­fi­cers are not part of the TTPS. They fall un­der mu­nic­i­pal cor­po­ra­tions, are gov­erned by the Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tions Act, and are not ap­point­ed through the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion,” she stat­ed.

The Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice have their own as­so­ci­a­tion, formed on Ju­ly 8, 2021. “That as­so­ci­a­tion is strug­gling to reach the 50-plus-one per­cent mem­ber­ship re­quired for le­gal rep­re­sen­ta­tion be­cause the present TTPSS­WA has poached mem­bers from the Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice.”

The spokes­woman said Team VIB re­ceived a let­ter from the at­tor­ney of the elec­tions com­mit­tee stat­ing that the Pres­i­den­tial Can­di­date for Team EQ­UI­TY is not el­i­gi­ble to con­test the post for Pres­i­dent, since he would have served three terms on the ex­ec­u­tive pri­or. “This is our first vic­to­ry.”

She raised se­ri­ous le­gal and eth­i­cal con­cerns about ex­tend­ing mem­ber­ship to Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice per­son­nel.

“If the law does not recog­nise them as TTPS of­fi­cers, aren’t we act­ing out­side the law by in­clud­ing them?” she asked. “How can we say we’re rep­re­sent­ing the best in­ter­ests of TTPS of­fi­cers while com­pro­mis­ing the very foun­da­tion of the As­so­ci­a­tion’s man­date? Would we next al­low fire of­fi­cers or prison of­fi­cers to join? Where do we draw the line?”

Paul said the for­mer Min­is­ter of Fi­nance, through lawyers by let­ter on March 10, 2025, had in­di­cat­ed that the TTPSS­WA can­not rep­re­sent Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice.

Equal sup­port for To­ba­go of­fi­cers

She al­so out­lined her team’s vi­sion for eq­ui­table rep­re­sen­ta­tion for of­fi­cers based in To­ba­go. She called for an end to long-stand­ing ne­glect and promised that Voic­es in Blue would en­sure To­ba­go is no longer side­lined.

“To­ba­go de­serves equal rep­re­sen­ta­tion, equal re­sources, and equal re­spect,” Paul said. “Of­fi­cers sta­tioned in To­ba­go de­serve the same lev­el of care, ser­vice, and at­ten­tion as their coun­ter­parts in any oth­er di­vi­sion—and Voic­es in Blue will de­liv­er just that.”

Planned ini­tia­tives in­clude:

-Con­struc­tion of the long-promised Scar­bor­ough Po­lice Sta­tion.

-Es­tab­lish­ment of a sub-of­fice at Mt. Pleas­ant to man­age claims, le­gal sup­port, loans, pen­sions, and hu­man re­sources, elim­i­nat­ing the need to trav­el to Trinidad for ba­sic ser­vices.

-A pro­posed po­lice hos­pi­tal on state-do­nat­ed land near the Claude Noel High­way, ded­i­cat­ed to serv­ing both re­tired and ac­tive of­fi­cers, as well as their im­me­di­ate fam­i­ly mem­bers.

-Im­prov­ing health­care ac­cess

Paul crit­i­cised the un­der­util­i­sa­tion of ex­ist­ing in­fra­struc­ture, point­ing to the po­lice hos­pi­tal in Pe­nal—con­struct­ed but nev­er opened—as a re­source that must be ac­ti­vat­ed. She al­so pro­posed a pri­vate wing for po­lice of­fi­cers at the Cou­va Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal, to be even­tu­al­ly repli­cat­ed across all polic­ing di­vi­sions.

“We risk our lives every day—we de­serve med­ical care that ho­n­ours that ser­vice,” Paul said. “Of­fi­cers should not be made to suf­fer due to in­ad­e­quate fa­cil­i­ties or bu­reau­crat­ic de­lays.”

Em­brac­ing tech­nol­o­gy and trans­paren­cy

Paul’s team has pledged to mod­ernise TTPS op­er­a­tions with the in­tro­duc­tion of dig­i­tal HR sys­tems, large dis­play mon­i­tors for vir­tu­al meet­ings in charge rooms, and on­line ac­cess to job let­ters.

“Oth­er min­istries have au­to­mat­ed these ser­vices. There is no rea­son why of­fi­cers should have to wait days for a doc­u­ment that can be de­liv­ered in three min­utes,” she said.

Hous­ing and fi­nan­cial sta­bil­i­ty

Voic­es in Blue al­so aims to work close­ly with the Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC) to pri­ori­tise of­fi­cers for home own­er­ship, par­tic­u­lar­ly those new to the ser­vice.

“Our of­fi­cers should not re­tire bur­dened with mort­gage pay­ments,” Paul as­sert­ed. “If we help them se­cure homes ear­ly in their ca­reers, they can en­joy fi­nan­cial free­dom at the end of their ser­vice.”

She added that the team is com­mit­ted to full fi­nan­cial trans­paren­cy. “Every dol­lar col­lect­ed, in­clud­ing rev­enue from gas sta­tions, will be pub­licly ac­count­ed for. Month­ly bal­ance sheets will be shared open­ly with mem­bers.”

A re­turn to pur­pose

Paul con­clud­ed by reaf­firm­ing the core mis­sion of her team. “This cam­paign is not about po­si­tion—it’s about pur­pose. We are here to build an As­so­ci­a­tion that func­tions, lis­tens, and de­liv­ers. Our mem­bers de­serve re­sults, not rhetoric.”

Es­tab­lished in 1934 un­der Sec­tion 23 of the Po­lice Ser­vice Act, the TTPSS­WA serves as the of­fi­cial body rep­re­sent­ing of­fi­cers be­low the rank of Su­per­in­ten­dent in mat­ters of wel­fare and work­ing con­di­tions.

The As­so­ci­a­tion’s in­ter­nal elec­tions are sched­uled to be held on 30 June 2025.

The Voic­es in Blue slate in­cludes:

Men­sah Form­ing – Can­di­date for Trustee

Dana Brown – Can­di­date for Trustee

Darell Black­man – Can­di­date for Trea­sur­er

Leah Mitchell-Samuel – As­sis­tant Sec­re­tary

Rox­anne Paul – Can­di­date for Sec­re­tary

Ron­nie-Lee Gopaul – Vice Pres­i­dent Can­di­date

Wen­dell War­rick – Can­di­date for Pres­i­dent