Basseterre, St. Kitts, October 30, 2015 (RSCNPF): The Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force is well on its way in building capacity within the ranks through ongoing training that gives the various departments and units depth with regards to persons trained to perform specific duties.
“Great teams have depth,” says Assistant Commissioner of Police, responsible for Operations Vaughan Henderson. “Just like a professional team may have players they can call on when the primary is down, and not affect the team’s performance, so do we in the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force. Our depth comes from training,..we are doing a lot of cross training, we are building the capacity for the future of the Force and we are doing it now.”
To date in this year, Officers have been trained locally by regional and international partners in the following areas; leadership and management with the Police Supervisory Courses; Training and Officer Development with the Instructors Course; and area specific training in Immigration, Investigations, Crime Scene Management and Preservation, Interviewing Techniques, Firearms and Ballistics tracing and marking procedures, Discreet Shadowing and Monitoring and others. In the coming months Officers will attend the Senior Investigating Officer’s course; Awareness courses in Crime Skills, Witness Protection, Family Liaison and Disclosure of Evidence.
Institutional capacity developmental courses in Media, Communications, Court Giving Evidence, Strategic Oversight and Customer Service are also on the calendar for the coming months.
Deputy Commander of the Police Training School, Inspector Eldrin Dickerson shared, that over 220 training opportunities have been afforded to Officers locally in job related training this year. “Our training efforts will continue as we continue to shape a 21st century Police Force for a fast developing country like St. Kitts and Nevis,” he added.
“Many of the courses held over the past months, also benefited our partners, partners at Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise Department, the Department of Social Services and other governmental agencies,” said the school’s Deputy Commander, Inspector Dickenson.
“This capacity building though ongoing training augers well for the Force,” said Commissioner(Ag) Liburd. He added, “A better trained Force will deliver results. Our Officers are equipped with investigative tools, the interviewing tools, the crime scene collection and preservation skills, the ballistics and firearm tracing capabilities, and the collective knowledge from all the other training that have been conducted and we are poised to deliver.”
“We will, but we will also need the help of the community, and the information the community may have that relates to crime and criminal activity is critical, share it by calling the Police or CrimeStoppers at 1-800-8477, and let’s stop crime together,” the Commissioner said.