ARTICLE - MARTELLY - RECRUITING POLICE

PRESIDENT MARTELLY, TALKS ABOUT RECRUITING THOUSANDS OF YOUNG POLICE OFFICERS
(Haiti Libre) -

President Michel Martelly during a visit Monday to the Directorate General of the police, reassured the police officers, in relation to his decision to establish a new national security force; by promising them in advance to strengthen the national police force by recruiting soon thousands of police with the support of Friends of Haiti and the Minustah and improve the working conditions of police officers.

"...since President Martelly is in power, we're talking of restoring the army. I want the police to know one thing, .... restoring the army is a campaign promise, that we will do, .... when we are ready and we will do it at a specific time [...] it is necessary that there is a developed comprehensive plan,... that it is well done [...]

But we see that there are people who took the opportunity to make disorder around that [...] who take things wrongly. For their part, I call that disorder. The President made ​​a promise, .... the President will keep his promise, but everyone will follow the plan of action that the government will implement to achieve this. This is not because we made a promise about the army, ... that people should come and do things their way.

[...] One of the first things we will do before we establish the army, is to strengthen the police [...] today, I want everyone to know that there is only one force in the country, [...] ] it is the police force [...] we have already discussed this with the Directorate General of the police. We talked about this with people who are involved in the strengthening of the institution, ... friendly countries and partners.

[...] There are many people who are impatient, who want to enter into the police force, There are people who are almost ready, young people who are already trained to do sports, but the training [...] it is the police who should give it to you.

When the army will be ready, it will give you the training. I have already spoken to the Director General to see how we can increase the staff quickly. We made various proposals to the Prime Minister [...] so that in the next 2 years, we can recruit thousands of people. We have no logistics for that, but in conjunction with the Friends of Haiti, with different Minustah bases across the country, we will see if there are ways to work and take a lot of young people and place them into the police, to strengthen the police force.

We will also work on the issue of police salaries, their insurance, the care of the family,... if he dies in the performance of his duties. All these are things that police officers require, to be able to give good service. So I repeat, the police is there to be strengthened and you 'hired' me to do it.

The question of the army that I mentioned, .... we continue to work on it and as I said, .... on November 18, we will announce what is to be announced,... but I do not want, that people anticipate, to make disorder with something that I have not yet announced.

What I will announce, is not the remobilization of former troops. What I will announce is just a calendar,... a work plan to restore the force..."