BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – CLOSE to 20 officers of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force are receiving training in the TAPS (Teen and Police Service) programme which seeks tackle crime through the development of bonds between troubled youth and the police.
The training began on Thursday (July 3) at the Police Training School and is being facilitated by Assistant Police Chief Brian Lumpkin (Ret.) and Director of Teen and Police Service Academy Professor Dr. Everett Penn.
In giving an overview of the programme and speaking to its necessity, Dr. Penn explained that it builds upon the foundation laid by programmes such as DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) and zeroes in on at-risk youth.
“We started Teen and Police Service Academy because we realise that there are difficulties between our teens and police officers.
“Research tells us, for example, in the United States that it is the teens specifically that of the African-American and Latino teen that desperately hate the police…to the point that I have talked to young folks, teens across the country who use the words ‘kill police’. It is very frightening to hear a 14 or 15-year-old say to you that I have such disdain for the police that I would want to kill a police officer. We have to do something about that.”
He said the programme is designed to cause a shift in perception of both the police and the youth. It is expected that the youth would know that the police are more than just “gun and badge” while simultaneously the police would see at-risk youth as more than deviant behaviour.
Dr. Penn stated that training would take place once per week for 11 weeks and, according to www.tapsacademy.org, the topics to be taught include Drug/Alcohol, Truancy, Team Building and Bullying.
Commander of the Training School Superintendent Lionel Moore said the training is important to the people of St. Kitts and Nevis as “we work to overcome challenges faced”.
TAPS has been implemented in Houston, Texas; Ponce, Puerto Rico; Tampa, Florida; Galveston, Texas and Columbus, Ohio.
For additional information on TAPS, visit www.tapsacademy.org
