Age limit to increase

In an effort to increase the number of persons available to be recruited into the Royal Barbados Police Force, the Government of Barbados is seeking to amend the maximum age limit of persons able to join the Force.

This was revealed by the Attorney General of Barbados, Dale Marshall, as he delivered remarks during the 143rd Passing Out Parade that took place Wednesday evening.

He revealed that in order to become a part of the Force, under the Police Act, individuals must be no younger than 19 and no older than 30 years old to be taken in as a recruit.

Additionally, there was also a height and chest requirement in place that served as the measuring stick for allowing persons to join the RBPF.

The Attorney General stated that while they understood that there may be “a good sensible purpose in limiting the age, we consider that in today’s Barbados, a maximum age limit of 30 is certainly too low if we are going to expect to recruit an increased number of officers.”

“Cabinet has therefore just agreed that the legislation will be amended to increase the upper limit from 30 to 35 and we will also be removing part of the statute that says an officer has to reach a certain height and chest requirement,” he said.

He stated that they would have done adequate research before reaching this conclusion, adding that in England, there is no height requirement and in fact, investigations revealed that the shortest police officer is four foot, ten inches.

Marshall went on to note that he believed it was time for the Force to include technology in their policing.

“The fact is that in today’s policing requires more brain than height and age, the Commissioner and the Commandant has reflected on the fact that Barbados is now a society that is driven by smart technology and if the members of the public are using it, then there is absolutely no reason why we should not introduce smart policing through the use of technology and through the use of risk base methods in the police force,” he said. (CLF)