Media/Police relations

By Terresa McCall
Reporter-SKNVibes.com

Commissioner of Police Austin Williams

Commissioner of Police (COP) Austin Williams, responding to questions asked by SKNVibes, informed that while there is some training for police on media/police relations, it does not suffice and the need for more training is evident.

“That one or two sessions (during training) wouldn’t really cover all, so we have plans to include that in on-the-job training and refresher training.”

Stachio Williams – photo  journalist arrested for taking pictures

The COP underscored the importance of such training in light of recent incidents involving media practitioners and members of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force.

“This type of training is important because policing is very different to other professions. You have to know the law in order to enforce it. Police officers undergo training for six months and would have to come up against people like lawyers who studied for four years and things like that. So police officers would really have to go through the details of law enforcement including police/media relations.”

Williams described the media as being very important to the police and stressed the need for both entities to cooperate with each other.

“It doesn’t matter what people think but the media is very important to police. The media can break you or build you. So we have to cooperate with the media. If goes both ways, the media must respect law enforcement and must know beforehand what they can and cannot do.”

The COP however did not indicate when the training would begin, exactly what it would entail and how often officers would be exposed to it.