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A Special Services Unit officer sleeps on mattresses on the floor in room with missing floor files and louvers at the SSU base in Old Montrose.
A Special Services Unit officer sleeps on mattresses on the floor in room with missing floor files and louvers at the SSU base in Old Montrose.
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Police officers at the Special Services Unit (SSU) are living at their base in Old Montrose in conditions that they would expect to meet when they are out on jungle mission or training, one source has told iWitness News.

iWitness News has obtained photos of  a dilapidated building, with missing louvers and floor files, in which some officers have been forced to sleep on cots for months, causing back aches that have resulted in sick leave.

One source said that the contents of eight urinals empty into a gutter that runs through a shower where some officers have to bathe.

Further, the windows on that side of the building are missing louvers and when the day is hot, the stench can be intolerable.

iWitness News was reliably informed that when officers complained to their superior, they were told that they met the situation like that.

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SSU base window 1
Windows at the SSU base at Old Montrose.

In addition to that, the missing louvers expose the police officers to the elements, and they are sometimes sprayed by the rain, exposed to mosquito bites, and the cold while sleeping at nights.

One source said that the building has been in that condition since at least around 2018.

iWitness News understands that some officers in one particular room have been complaining for months, since their beds were removed and given to recruits.

These five officers were given cots to sleep on, which is often a short-term arrangement.

After a month, the cots began to sink in so the officers started to put mattresses on them.

“The men look like bread and sausages on those cots,” one source said, referring to the extent to which the cots have sunken in because of how long officers have been sleeping them.

SSU 3
Left: An officer becomes like “a bread and sausage” as he sleeps on a cot at the SSU base. (Centre) The contents from urinals empty into this drain and runs in gutter that passes through the showers at the SSU Base at Old Monstrose.

However, one of them was so affected and developed such serious backaches that he had to be sent on more than a weeks’ sick leave.

Some of the officers have resorted to putting their mattresses on the ground.

The SSU base is located at the Old Montrose Police Station, which is also home to the Police Training School.

The police outpost borders the Prime Minister Residence, which is the official home of Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, who, as minister of national security, has ministerial responsibilities for the police force.

iWitness News understands that the police station houses 100 police recruits and up to two SSU teams, each comprising 40 officers.

14 replies on “Police officers living in deplorable conditions at SSU base”

  1. Cosbert Sargeant says:

    If our officers and by extension public servants are treated like animals, what sort of treatment should the public expect from them?

  2. They aid tyranny of politicians and in turn they get dis respected by the same politicians. Police you have the power in your hands to make that change show your servants you deserve better

  3. You all iñ Saint Vincent is playing the ass with the men and women who you are recruiting into the police force to defend the people. What is going on in Saint Vincent. When reading this report, it make one think of the foolishness that is taking place there.

  4. I am hoping that ALL police (and the many other civil servants) remember this and every other injustice come 2025!

    Dogs and all live and sleep in better conditions. This is simply disgusting!

  5. Sandra Bynoe says:

    With all that hate for authority that the police are trained to have when living in these conditions it is no wonder they want to beat people up when they get them in the station it is a kind of ill thought mental revenge.

  6. Ha, Ha, Ha, Mek mi laugh!! Alyo live Inna pigsty. That’s good for all alyo . when people dey out dey ah protest for dem rights, freedom, better living condition, against nepotism, cronyism, and dictatorship alyo come out inna green uniform pon road ah show off alyo self like some idiot pon the same people who ah try fuh help ah yo. Now, look par alyo live, and all ah you sit down dey inna that nastiness not a word. Massa, ha alyo good !! when your lungs start to affect, you and you get sick, him and his entire family all healthy with the resources to travel out of the country for better health care if they get sick, while you suffer in the dilapidated hospital. GOOD LUCK!! FIVE INNA ROW MORE PROBLEMS TO GO!

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