00:00Topping the news, Police Commissioner Alistair Guevara announced a short while ago that his officers will be allowed to keep their weapons while off duty.
00:09Co-hosting on the TV6's Beyond the Tape program with Marlon Hopkinson, the Commissioner made this announcement concerning the firearms users licenses.
00:17I took the decision today to call for all of the firearm users license applications for 2025 that have not yet expired past six months.
00:33So if you have an application and it is not going past the six months, I will entertain that application for a decision.
00:42I'm not saying whether or not, nay or nay, for a decision.
00:46The reason why I'm using, and I would like the public to understand, that six-month barrier is that one of the, or several of the criteria for getting a firearm users license, one of them is a certificate of character.
00:59And that is only valid for six months.
01:01So having an invalid certificate of character, we can't go forward.
01:05We have medical certificates, psychometric evaluations, and also letters from your spouses.
01:10So a lot can change in half a year.
01:12So we need to get that updated.
01:14So me calling for all of the firearm applications for the first six months of this year would keep within that remit and that policy directive that I gave today to have those dealt with quickly.
01:26What I'm advising the public is that all the applications which would have had items of requirements that would have been older than six months,
01:35to kindly put yourself in order to have them updated as soon as possible.
01:40So what I will do, I will have the firearm permit section send these applications back out to the divisions for to be updated.
01:51And then they would return to me for the purpose of a decision on whether it should be granted or not.
01:57All right?
01:58The second part of that, I can't be arming the members of the public and not treated my own officers.
02:04So I want to talk to my officers this evening and say to you, you have not been left behind.
02:10Yesterday I would have visited the armory and I would have called for an audit of all the idle and serviceable pistols.
02:16And it is my intention to institute an off-duty firearm policy where I will be arming all of my frontline tactical and operational officers
02:25so that they, in the past, you treat with a criminal and he would often tell you, you have to sign off yours.
02:34Well, let me tell you, my officers have to sign off their guns again.
02:37Commissioner Guevara said at the moment there are 55,000 applicants and the TTPS will be putting out a release in the media
02:47with all the requirements necessary to apply for the gun license.
02:51He gave the assurance that a current process for assessing applications is quite adequate.
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