As Trinidad and To­ba­go cel­e­brates its in­de­pen­dence to­day, Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (CoP) Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro is pay­ing trib­ute to fe­male of­fi­cers who have helped build and shape the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS).

In a me­dia re­lease yes­ter­day, Gue­var­ro re­called that in 1955, 12 women en­tered a ser­vice that had nev­er be­fore known their pres­ence.

“They did so with­out prece­dent, with­out a road al­ready built, and of­ten with­out the wel­come they de­served,” he said.

“What they pos­sessed in­stead was courage, con­vic­tion and an un­shake­able be­lief that they be­longed in the work of pro­tect­ing this na­tion.”

Gue­var­ro said that 71 years lat­er, women serve through­out every di­vi­sion, branch, unit and sec­tion of the TTPS, in­clud­ing the Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions, Crim­i­nal In­ves­ti­ga­tions De­part­ment, Spe­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tions Unit and Spe­cial Branch.

He high­light­ed their roles as Crime Scene In­ves­ti­ga­tors, fin­ger­print ex­perts and po­lice pho­tog­ra­phers, as well as in the Fi­nan­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tions Branch, Fraud Squad, Cy­ber Crime Unit, Guard and Emer­gency Branch, In­ter-Agency Task Force, An­ti-Kid­nap­ping Unit and Firearms In­ter­dic­tion Unit.

Women al­so serve as Bomb Tech­ni­cians, in Child Pro­tec­tion and Gen­der-Based Vi­o­lence units, traf­fic pa­trol, the Mount­ed and Ca­nine Branch and across every po­lice di­vi­sion.

“They shape the next gen­er­a­tion at the Po­lice Acad­e­my and strength­en the in­sti­tu­tion it­self through Pro­fes­sion­al Stan­dards, Hu­man Re­sources, Cor­po­rate Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Ad­min­is­tra­tion.

“There is scarce­ly a branch or sec­tion of this Ser­vice in which a woman has not served, and served well,” Gue­var­ro said.

He not­ed that women have served along­side male coun­ter­parts “not in their shad­ow, and not as an ex­cep­tion to the rule, but as of­fi­cers of equal com­pe­tence, equal com­mit­ment and equal courage.”

Gue­var­ro al­so paid trib­ute to the women who had gone be­fore, de­scrib­ing them as pi­o­neers who opened a door that had been closed.

“This ser­vice is what it is to­day be­cause of you. To those who serve now, in every rank and in every cor­ner of these is­lands, you car­ry that lega­cy for­ward with dig­ni­ty and pride, and you do so with my full con­fi­dence.”