RBDF: 3000 officers needed to counter attrition Eye Witness News – EyeWitness News

NASSAU, BAHAMAS Royal Bahamas Defense Force (RBDF) Commodore Raymond King yesterday said another 3,000 are needed to bolster the organization as he announced aggressive recruitment measures.

King said 125 people are expected to begin training by mid-October, adding that about 45 people leave annually.

He said the reasons for leaving are multifaceted; however, a large amount of those exiting tend to seek other means of work while others seem to be dissuaded by the RBDF efforts to disperse marines and officers across the archipelago.

The RBDF currently consists of about 1,900 individuals.

What we found is, as we move to decentralize our operations, its a decision point for some of our members who may be gainfully employed otherwise, King said.

Its a mixture. The trend has been, everyone feels as though the Defense Force is the career for them, and so they join, and they find out within their first contract period either a three or five-year period that hey, this is not the place for me.

He added that other reasons are due to persons taking the job with the mindset that it will only be temporary, and others who have served for decades are deciding to leave before serving until the cut-off age of 60.

So we have persons who may join just to be able to save funding to continue the educational program, we have a number of our senior persons, despite the government within the last two years, increasing the age tenure for persons moving from 55 to age 60.

Persons are now being forced to make the decision, Should I leave at age 55 and stay until age 60? And What are our employment chances, who will employ us at age 60?

And so some persons are making the decision to leave at 55, to take their gratuity, the pension, and to move off and into another new career in some cases, King said.

Minister of National Security Wayne Munroe said the Royal Bahamas Police Force and the Bahamas Department of Corrections are also gearing up for additional recruitment in response to the challenge of officers leaving while more persons are needed.

The recruitment continues in order to replace the manpower we lose by attrition and to make up for some of the deficiencies that we met in place, Munroe said.

Since taking the chair we have recruited two squads into every law enforcement agency.

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RBDF: 3000 officers needed to counter attrition Eye Witness News - EyeWitness News