21 police officers for NCO orientation course

Twenty-one police officers will spend the next three weeks at the Old Montrose Police Training School where they will be engaged in a Junior Non Commissioned Officers’ orientation course.{{more}}

The course, the first of its kind, will focus primarily on topics such as duties of the NCOs, tourism, customer relations, human trafficking and domestic violence among other topics.

During the opening ceremony of the course yesterday, Superintendent of Police and Commandant of the Training School, Frankie Joseph said the police training school has been given a mandate and the institution is ensuring that all police officers are fully trained and developed to face the challenges that they are facing on a day to day basis.

“It is often said that St. Vincent and the Grenadines does not have natural resources, but what we do have is our human resources and in order for us to function effectively and to ensure that National Security is at its highest, we have to ensure that our police are well and efficiently trained.

“And this is going to be the first of many orientation and development courses for our police officers,” Joseph explained.

Joseph explained that on radio and television programs, persons are saying that criminals are getting smarter and “in that light, we cannot allow the police to be left behind. Therefore our emphasis is going to be on training.”

“We have a wealth of knowledge and resource personnel in this organization and we are hoping to draw from all that to develop this organization,” he told gathering.

Joseph informed the participating officers that the course is not a vacation, holiday or a time away from their duties.

“This is going to be hard work because knowledge is power and that is the reason why we are equipping you with such knowledge.

Commissioner of Police, Keith Miller, who also addressed the opening, told the officers that training is critical.

He advised the officers that in order to operate professionally, they need to be properly trained.

“There is no way that your workforce will have to proper tools to proceed, if you are not trained.

“Training is critical, education is critical,” the COP added.

Professionals from the different sectors, including the Ministry of Tourism will be on hand to assist as facilitators during the three week course. (AA)