While walking in Port Louis today, I noticed several trainee police officers dressed in white t-shirts and blue tracksuits. (I later read on TopFM’s web site that they were SSU officers). I was particularly alarmed when I saw some of them at a pedestrian crossing.
As you can see in the video, another officer in police uniform was supervising them while they halted the traffic to allow pedestrians to cross.
The public did not really understand who they were and their role in the middle of the road. Without the proper uniform, these police officers were very often ignored. People continued to cross the road despite their hand signals to stop while vehicles did not stop as “instructed”.
The aim of this post is not to blame these new recruits nor their supervising police officer. I believe that the concerned authorities should take note of this potential danger and at least provide some reflective jackets (with police written) to our officers-to-be the next time they want to repeat this exercise.
Update (9 Sep 2016) :
I have come across several of the trainees again but each of them now had their reflective jackets.
Good job! 🙂
Yashvinblogs 