THE Government is moving to increase the sanctioned strength of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) from 7,884 officers to 10,200 officers in an effort to place more boots on the ground.Minister of Homeland Security Roger Alexander, in a statement to Parliament yesterday, said the Government fully recognises that strengthening national security requires responsible financial planning. He said Cabinet agreed that the expansion would occur through a phased five-year recruitment programme, with 600 officers to be recruited in year one, another 600 in year two, and 372 officers annually in years three, four and five.Simultaneously, he said the TTPS would expand academy infrastructure and training capacity to ensure recruitment standards and operational professionalism are maintained.The minister said the increase is designed to ensure that the TTPS can sustainably maintain an operational presence of approximately 7,800 officers nationwide — the minimum threshold identified as necessary to meet modern policing and national security requirements.He said the initiative is aimed at restoring operational balance by allowing the TTPS to properly staff specialised investigative and intelligence units while simultaneously strengthening visible policing across communities throughout Trinidad and Tobago.Alexander said the increase in manpower would significantly improve the operational effectiveness of the TTPS. He added it would support greater police visibility, noting that more officers on patrol would strengthen the visible presence of law enforcement within communities and act as a deterrent to criminal activity.The minister said additional manpower would improve the TTPS’s ability to respond more rapidly to emergencies, violent incidents and public safety threats.He said there would also be enhanced investigative capacity, as the TTPS would be better positioned to strengthen:• intelligence operations;• cybercrime investigations;• gang suppression activities;• financial investigations;• anti-corruption enforcement; and• community policing initiatives.The minister said additional officers would improve engagement with schools, businesses, community groups and vulnerable communities, thereby strengthening public trust and intelligence gathering.According to Alexander, current staffing pressures have contributed to excessive overtime and operational fatigue.“The present staffing deficit has contributed to a substantial overtime burden. The proposed expansion is expected to reduce excessive overtime dependency and improve long-term operational sustainability,” he said.He added that the proposal seeks to reduce those pressures, improve officer effectiveness and enhance professional performance across the Service.The minister said additional TTPS officers would also support operations at ports, airports and other strategic national security locations.He said the TTPS would be better equipped to respond to:• major national events;• spikes in criminal activity;• natural disasters;• States of emergency; and• other national crises.The minister said strengthening the TTPS is a matter of “critical national importance” and part of efforts to modernise its operational structure.He said it is a strategic national security intervention intended to ensure that the TTPS possesses the manpower, operational flexibility and institutional capacity required to confront evolving criminal threats.“Mr Speaker, criminals have modernised, organised and expanded their operations. The State must therefore ensure that law enforcement is equally equipped, equally organised and sufficiently resourced to respond decisively,” he said.Alexander said the current sanctioned strength of the TTPS stands at 7,884 officers. However, operational analysis confirmed that the Service maintains an effective deployment strength of approximately 5,500 officers on any given day. He said this gap exists because officers are necessarily engaged in vacation leave, sick leave, training, administrative assignments, court attendance and specialist operational duties.“The reality therefore is that the TTPS has been required to police a modern and increasingly complex criminal environment with a frontline operational strength significantly below its sanctioned establishment,” he said.The minister said that over more than four decades, the TTPS has expanded its specialist capabilities to address emerging threats such as cybercrime, financial crimes, anti-corruption investigations, gang activity, intelligence-led operations and transnational organised crime. However, he said these specialised units were created without any corresponding increase in the overall establishment.Alexander said, as a consequence, officers were continuously reassigned from visible policing and frontline patrol functions into technical and specialist divisions.This resulted in fewer officers being available within communities, reduced patrol visibility, increased operational strain and growing overtime dependency, he said.Alexander added that the Government cannot ask the Police Service to “do more with less indefinitely.”Opposition MP Marvin Gonzales asked the minister whether Cabinet took the decision following a manpower audit of the TTPS. Alexander responded that an audit had been conducted in conjunction with the International Association of Chiefs of Police.