PM to CoP: Police need better training

AT the opening of the Carenage Police Station and launch of the Marine Unit, the Prime Minister called on the Police Commissioner to train officers to tackle crime in the digital world and not tolerate indiscipline within the service.

Dr Rowley told Gary Griffith that training is paramount and hopes that within two years there should be officers well trained to address digital crimes.

“There is the whole question of who will run the police service and who will not run the police service. Whoever is running it going forward, I will want that within the next 24 months a major training programme takes place. Specifically identify officers with the best attitude and aptitude for specific training in modern policing, especially with a digital background and use of digital technology to serve us as we move this nation forward digitally.”

Rowley added that there are areas that need focusing on in the police service, and training is one of them. He said there are young people coming into the service highly qualified and enthusiastic but who are being failed because they are not receiving the proper training.

This new drive to train officers better, he said, will redound to the benefit of the country as the officers will be better citizens and do their jobs more efficiently.

While seeking for the officers to be trained, Rowley also called on Griffith not to stand for police corruption as he hopes to resume pride in the police service.

He said: “I can’t continue the subject without telling the Police Commissioner to have zero tolerance for misconduct in the police service. It ought to be a privilege to be in the police service, a privilege to wear that uniform. Police officers wear that uniform and treat it like something at Carnival.”

Rowley added that the country spent millions of dollars over the years to invest in the police service and therefore the commissioner should be intolerant of indiscipline so that parents will be proud to say their sons and daughters are members of the police service, since being a police officer should mean something in the country.

Also speaking at the opening was National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds who said the police station, which hosts the first base of the Coastal and Riverine Unit, makes Diego Martin West the "security constituency."

While the PM spoke of training officers to become more technologically savvy, Hinds reminded the audience that the police station is a service to the people of the community.

"The modern-day necessities of downloading apps and call(ing) 482 GARY, as critical as they are in these modern times, can hardly match the attraction of the good old police station."

Griffith, in his address, promised to maintain the $53 million facility, which will house not only the coastal unit but other units such as the Gender Based Violence and Sexual Offences Unit.

He added that with the opening of the station, it was a very good day to be a police officer.

“This is not just a building; this is a critical asset towards the importance of the police service doing what is required.”

Griffith said for the past 15 years it was difficult policing the Western Division out of the Carenage Police Station, as the old police station had a pothound that would attack officers.