Hundreds descend on RT Police Station for Police Clearance Certificates
This news site was informed that more than 400 persons turned up this morning at the Road Town Police Station to make their application for a police clearance certificate.
Some persons were reportedly at the police station since 6:00 am today, May 13, 2019.
A police clearance usually takes 10 working days to process, however, applicants for the ‘fast track initiative; have 15 working days to get their documents sorted and handed in.
Process slow
A number of persons who visited the Police Station this morning for the purpose of applying for a police clearance certificate complained to this news site about the “slow” pace of receiving applications and were worried as to whether the certificates would be processed in time.
According to one person, the Road Town Police Station was open for business at 9:00am and by 10:30am only 5 persons had received service.
“Someone needs to make the public aware of this and why did they not make provisions knowing how many people are trying to do this before the deadline,” a woman told Virgin Islands News Online.
‘Be patient with us’- CoP Matthews
Meanwhile, Police Commissioner Michael B. Matthews, who is currently out of the Territory on leave, told the media on Friday, May 10, 2019, that the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force (RVIPF) is working very hard to process the police checks that must accompany such applications.
“I would ask individuals to be patient. We are seeing a significant increase in the number of police checks required, which is understandable, and we have put on additional staff to process the applications. Indeed in one day alone, we processed over 100 police checks in support of applications,” Mr Matthews said.
The police check, according to CoP Matthews, is a crucial part of ensuring that persons applying for citizenship in the Virgin Islands have been checked thoroughly in terms of their backgrounds and not a matter that can be rushed.
“But we will, of course, make every effort to process each application as quickly as possible, but I would ask for those that are waiting, to bear with us. Have a little bit of patience, my team is working very very hard to support this initiative and to make sure that these people who wish to take advantage of this current situation made available by the Government are able to do so as quickly as possible.”
Police Media Liaison, Diane Leonard-Drayton also confirmed to this news site today, May 13, 2019, that additional staff have been put in place to handle the influx of applications for the police clearance certificates.
Meanwhile, Premier and Minister of Finance Honourable Andrew A. Fahie (R1) had previously stated that the Immigration Department will go through a period of training and new temporary recruitment to handle the increase workload projected to come from the regularisation initiative.
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