BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – TWENTY-SEVEN members of Police and Defence Forces from five CARICOM Member States, including nine from St. Kitts and Nevis, are now better trained in reconnaissance, surveillance and counter-narcotic intelligence after successfully completing a four-week Regional Security System (RSS) Advanced Patrol Course.
In addition to St. Kitts and Nevis, the participants were drawn from Antigua and Barbuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados and Grenada.
The course, which began on Monday (Nov. 3), concluded with a Closing Ceremony in the Conference Room of the Customs and Excise Department in Bird Rock on Friday (Nov. Nov. 32).
Giving an overview of the course, Course Officer Warrant Officer Class One (WO1) Christopher Blenman stated that it was funded by the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs and coordinated by the Narcotic Affairs Section of the US Embassy in Bridgetown, Barbados.
The course was aimed at assessing the ability and resourcefulness of the participants to survive and operate in a hostile environment with limited logistical and manpower support.
This, according to WO1 Blenman, was done through a series of high-impact activities which required the participants to survive within a jungle environment for long periods and also in remote and inaccessible areas in order to conduct surveillance, locate and apprehend narcotics producers, traffickers, and capture terrorists or other criminals who would choose to move to the jungle in an attempt to elude law enforcement agencies.
Blenman stated that the four-week course commenced at the Camp Springfield Headquarters of the St. Kitts and Nevis Defence Force (SKNDF) and they had established a base camp within the forested area of Saddlers Village, from where the intensive training and various exercises were conducted.
He also stated that the training, which included Map Reading and Navigation, Jungle Survival, Physical Training, Identification of Illegal Drugs, Fire and Manoeuvre with live rounds, Close Quarter Battle, Narcotics Eradication, and Command and Control.
The training also took the participants to the Fisheries Complex for River Crossing Techniques, Frigate Bay and Nevis, where they had a tour of the island as they did on St. Kitts.
In his address to the participants, Assistant Commissioner with responsibility for Crime, Ian Queeley charged them to share the knowledge gained on the course with their superiors, peers and subordinates on return to their respective units.
“I want to wholeheartedly congratulate all of you for successfully completing a usually rough course. Based on what was outlined in the overview by Warrant Officer Blenman, it seems as though the course really had the contents that are require to make and mould you into the kind of persons that would be suitable to function within your respective units and the wider RSS operational team as members of the security forces, and particularly be able to operate in a jungle-like environment for protracted periods,” Queeley said.
He told the officers that that course and future conducted RSS courses that they would attend would put them in good stead within and without their professional life.
“The standard, the contents and the techniques that you would have been taught over the past four weeks are certainly those which are required to help you as individuals not only in your professional life. Therefore, I would implore you to apply these techniques, training and instructions assimilated over those four weeks to your everyday life and you will be better individuals for your organisation and your country as a whole.”
He admonished the young officers to remain in contact with each other in an effort for them to share information and new ideas.
“Courses like these always foster great friendship. It’s an opportunity for you to build on the networking skills and to communicate and stay in touch with each other when you would have departed this island. Bear in mind, just like the security forces that are strategising and planning how to combat crime and illicit activities, criminals are also making the same plans. Therefore, it is important that we stay on top of this.
“In your various islands, you may discover some things that are new, please share it with your counterparts. What happens in the east blows to the west! It is only a matter of time before that happens in the other countries. So I implore you also to build that network and maintain it, make certain you stay in communication. You can set up chat rooms, email groups and blast that information so that you can be ahead because the challenges that we face are similar in each of these islands.”
In his brief remarks, Commander of the SKNDF Lt. Col Patrick Wallace thanked the RSS Headquarters for choosing St. Kitts and Nevis to host this course and he commended the participants for successfully completing it.
He, too, admonished the young officers to remain in contact with each other.
“When you return to your respective countries you must keep in touch with each other. You have been through four weeks of training which should have inspired a certain degree of camaraderie among you. It taught you to rely on each other. I am sure that most of you, before attending this course, did not know each other. But I am sure now that you feel like brothers and sisters, because the things you share in the jungle you would not have normally shared at home.”
Making reference to WO1 Blenman, Lt. Col. Wallace pointed out that, just like himself, he would not be around forever and his replacement could be from one among the newly-trained security personnel to conduct courses designed by the RSS.
Director of Operation and Planning in the RSS, Lt. Col. James Requena challenged the officers to use their surveillance skills and ability taught to them on the course to locate and apprehend narcotics personnel in the field and other scenarios given to them.
“When you are off-duty, use your surveillance skills, look around you, see what’s happening and take note. You are always a member of the security force of RSS. Within the RSS we are only as strong as the weakest link and our purpose rightfully states that our strength is through unity. Build on the teamwork that you learned on this course from the members of the different countries and different security forces,” Lt. Col. Requena advised.
He declared that the RSS is the only organisation in the region that has the cooperation of the Customs, Police and the Army working together in unity, and that nowhere else in the world would one find such activity.
The Director of Operation and Planning informed that courses conducted by the RSS would soon be recognised by universities in the Caribbean and they would also be used for promotional purposes.
“The RSS continues to build capacity in standardising our training and we are also going through an accreditation process. Many of us did not get the opportunity to have a formal education and our courses are being sought for accreditation by universities within the region. So, whenever you attend a course, put in your all because it goes towards your credit to a degree. The RSS is also seeking to standardise the courses for promotion purposes so that we will have one standard for promotion in the region.”
On behalf of the RSS, Requena thanked the sponsor of the course, noting that without the sponsorship of the United States Narcotics Department it would have been a challenge.
“In this world economic crisis, funds are limited but whenever we have great partners and we work together, things are achievable. I would like to thank the St. Kitts and Nevis Defence Force for providing the accommodation and the hosting of the course. I would also like to thank the Police Force for their support and all the people of St. Kitts and Nevis,” he added.
Lt. Col. Requena disclosed that St. Kitts and Nevis would be hosting the 2015 Tradewinds in May.
Among those present at the Closing Ceremony were Special Advisor to the Prime Minister’s Office, Dr. Norgen Wilson; Senior Officers of the SKNDF, the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force and the Customs and Excise Department, as well as a number of Senior Non-Commissioned Officers of the Coast Guard.
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