BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - A notice of closure of one of the recreation facilities of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police is reportedly causing a stir among some individuals, specifically an officer who opined that the facility acted as a bonding agent between the police and civilians.
The police gymnasium has been in existence for several years and was first housed in the back portion of the Basseterre Police Station (Lozack Road) and was later shifted to the Police Training Complex.
Recently however, as explained by Constable Lauston Percival, a notice was erected on the door of the gymnasium indicating that the facility would be closed. He explained that in addition to that, the equipment was removed from the room they were in and placed in the garage.
Officer Percival said he is particularly upset by this move because the gymnasium was helping to bridge the police/civilian gap, especially in a time when mistrust is rampant.
“The gym was serving two purposes to my mind, and other persons I spoke to said the same thing. Firstly, it was keeping the police officers in good shape health wise and, secondly, it was kinda bringing the community and the police together because we had a large number of persons who used to go to the gym and had a very good relationship with the police officers who go there also.
“We were told that the gym is going to be closed. We weren’t given any reasons why it is going to be closed or any alternative place where we could put the equipment. Last week Wednesday a note was put up on the board saying Friday, which was last week Friday, would have been the last. And on Saturday the equipment was put outside in the old garage for the Police Training School.”
Percival informed that responsibility for the gymnasium lies with the Police Sports Club of which Oatis Stevens is the President. He said the mounted notice was signed by Stevens
He also indicated that he spoke with one of the members of the Police Force’s High Command, who said he was unaware of the closure of the gymnasium.
“Up to date nobody has come to say this is the reason why and we are working on whatever. Nobody has come! I have spoken to one of the commissioners who indicated that he knows nothing about what is going on pertains to the gym. We have a Sports Club and a Police Welfare Association, but none of the two seems to know exactly what is going on.
“Some of the equipment we took over to Police Headquarters what we could have moved with, and still do a little workout over there. But nothing much we can do because of space and only certain of the equipment we could have moved at the time.”
The officer lamented that in times like these, fostering good relationships between police and civilians is paramount in the fight against crime and promoting good health amongst officers is also important.
“We speak about police not being fit and healthy and we had police officers coming there and really turning their lives around. We also had people coming and interacting with the police and creating that bond between police and civilians, and the relations were building really, really well. So this development throws us back.”
Efforts to get a comment on this situation from the Assistant Commissioner of Police with responsibility for Crime, Ian Queeley, were futile.
