Basseterre, St. Kitts, February 14, 2014 (SKNIS): A few changes are being made to a number of tactical units in the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force to ensure that more officers have an opportunity to progress within the organization.
Citing long established procedures, Commissioner of Police Celvin G. Walwyn revealed that when the Special Services Unit (SSU) was established, members were rotated regularly. However, this practice has not been widely used as of late.
“What I am told is that every police officer in the Federation was supposed to have been given a chance to serve in the SSU so that at any time [if] something should happen of a nature needing higher police assistance every police officer would know how to respond and how to react,” he revealed. “Unfortunately, we have people in SSU who have been there [for] nine years. … it stagnates the person especially when it comes to promotion. We just found out that only one person within that unit took the promotional exams. That is not good. Officers should always be thinking about advancing themselves educationally and to advance themselves within the agency.”
The changes are not limited to the SSU. Qualified personnel with the drive and commitment will also benefit from new assignments to the Delta Squad and the Drug Squad Unit. This means that more officers will also undergo advanced training from the Regional Security System (RSS).
“You should be well rounded, go from department to department so that when it’s time for you to become a supervisor you would have learnt all of the stations that are required within law enforcement to effectively operate as a supervisor,” Commissioner Walwyn expressed.
Some of the personnel rotated from SSU have taken their expertise to the newly established Anti-Robbery Team (ART), headed by Inspector Adolf Adams. The mandate of the squad is to gather intelligence, conduct surveillance and support the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and the Violent Crimes Unit (VCU). The ART formation is in keeping with the proactive approach being employed by law enforcement to prevent more crimes.
“They’re out there already making arrests, we have just kept it quiet,” the police head concluded.
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