Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves speaking on Boom FM on Monday, said he is happy with the recent uptake of vaccines by officers of the Royal St Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force.
Gonsalves said as of last Friday (12 November), the vaccination rate stood at 68 percent.
Gonsalves said nearly 800 law enforcement officers had taken the vaccine, and this number includes the fire and coast guard division.
The Prime Minister told Dwight ‘bing’ Joseph that the SVG police force could operate with 800 persons.
“We can utilize technology far better, we can utilize mobile systems, and we can reorganize the police force in accordance with what you have at hand”.
“Let’s take, for instance, what you have at the moment. SSU (Special Service Unit) members, you have about 130. A number of them do stationery duty. That is to say, they go and secure the residents of Judges, Ambassadors and Prime Minister, etc.
“We can create a personal protection unit and don’t require the SSU to be so engaged, so you can free them to do other things. You can train particular persons as auxiliaries for special protection, and you can have a unit itself dealing with that, and efficiently reorganize other units”.
“I believe that the overwhelming number of police officers when this thing comes out in the wash would have taken the vaccine”.
Gonsalves said the leadership of the Police force told him that they expect all, but twenty-five officers may not take the vaccine.
“I told them I think that about 100 may not take the vaccine, or more than 100”.
Gonsalves said there are over 200 excellent applicants for the police force right now, all of whom are vaccinated, with the majority two doses and others one dose.
“We would be taking in, as usual, a number of them perhaps for training before the end of the year as recruits. We may put in 100 or 110”.
“Look, I want to reemphasize, I don’t want anyone to lose their jobs, but I am elected Prime Minister and took the oath to deliver good governance and safety”, Gonsalves said.
There are about 1300 law enforcement officers in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
