TCI Police Records backlog addressed, but what about going forward?

By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, March 3, 2022 – What should have been a ten day waiting period has dragged out to as long as three months for residents who are in desperate need of police records.

Our news organization has been on the receiving end of complaints and concerns for months; employers requiring the document for employees and those needing the character certificate for renewals and as part of application packages for various government offices were stuck because the Royal TCI Police Force was on virtual shut down.

On Tuesday, Police finally responded and say a part of the problem is that demand for the police records have increased to over 400% since the advent of the online system.

In a statement on Tuesday police admit to the unforeseen demand, a demand which also exposes how many people were avoiding the long lines and long wait times of the former system.

“Whilst we made provisions to deal with an increase in applications; such a significant increase was neither predictable or anticipated.

I want to reassure you that we are fixing the problem through additional staffing hours being available to process the applications and as we now understand the demand better, we are working to match our resources to that demand to ensure we provide a timely service to applicants,” said Commissioner Trevor Botting in a statement.

It is reported that the staff is too small, only three people are working to produce hundreds of police records on functioning computer.

The Police are now saying they can get the wait time from months to 21 days after the backlog has been cleared.  After that they aim to cut, wait time for the character certificate to 14 days.

The Royal TCI Police has called on the public for patience.