Ramdial: More women police can positively impact crime fight
April 22, 2013: Minister Ramona Ramdial speaking at the International Association of Women Police (IAWP) Region 17 Conference at Capital Plaza, Port of Spain.
More women in the Police Service can positively impact the fight against crime, both in Trinidad & Tobago and abroad, Minister in the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, Ramona Ramdial has said.
Minister Ramdial was at the time representing Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar at the International Association of Women Police (IAWP) Region 17 conference held at Capital Plaza Hotel, Port of Spain on Monday. She was previously Minister in the Ministry of Gender, Youth and Child Development.
“Women tend to use a style of policing that relies more on physical communication rather than physical force and this is what is needed to diffuse high tension situations. Women have been accredited for a more community-oriented style of policing and thus more effective at handling domestic disturbances or violent incidents,” Minister Ramdial stated.
She added: “Police experts worldwide have long held to the belief that increasing the number of female officers is key to the success of community policing goals, key to reducing police brutality, and essential for the better handling of crimes of domestic violence and rape. Two decades of studies have consistently found that women bring a unique and very beneficial style to policing. Let’s face it women are better at diffusing a situations; they tend to listen more before they react.”
Minister Ramdial also told the gathering of woman police officers from around the world of advances being made in the protective services, highlighting the increase in the intake capacity at the Police Service Training Academy; the expansion of the Recruiting Unit to include 20 Background Check Investigators and more Polygraphists, and a revision of the Induction Programme.
Revealing that there are currently approximately 800 police women in the local service, 1700 if Special Reserve Police are included, the Minister also made a case for more women in leadership positions in the Police Service.
“Leadership therefore will be the most important resource that the police organization can possess. Historically in the Caribbean, leadership has been provided by men, though over the pass thirty years the proportion of women serving as law enforcement personnel has been growing. However, there are still significant hurdles to be negotiated by women as they seek to take on leadership roles in police organizations in the Caribbean. The issues, problems and challenges that women continue to face in this quest are not insurmountable.”