Basseterre, St. Kitts, February 03, 2016 (SKNIS): Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security, Osmond Petty, reinforced Government’s confidence in the Police Strategic Plan 2016-2019 noting that it brings a new approach to law and order in St. Kitts and Nevis.
On Wednesday’s (February 03) edition of “Working for You” Mr. Petty said accountability in the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force (RSCNPF) has to improve, and the four directorates to be introduced under the command of the Deputy Commissioner of Police and Assistant Commissioners of Police (ACP) will greatly add to this and result in improved efficiency.
In offering more information on the reforms, Mr. Petty said the Service Improvement Directorate headed by the Deputy Commissioner brings together training, professional standards, public relations and human resources. “This department is going to be responsible for ensuring that [the] police perform at a high standard wherever they are located,” he said. “This department will ensure that police stations function as they should, that policemen [and women] are held accountable for their actions.”
An interesting feature highlighted for the Service Improvement Directorate was the partnership with the Legal Department to introduce Police and Criminal Evidence (PACE) legislation. The powers of police officers, codes of conduct, codes of practice for operations such as stop and searches, arrest detentions, investigations, interviewing detainees are all covered in the legislation being modeled after a 1984 United Kingdom law.
The Crime Directorate under the Command of the Assistant Commissioner for Crime is responsible for reducing and detecting all crime particularly those involving firearms and homicides. “What is new here is that the police are going to be introducing what is referred to as a Major Incident Room,” Mr. Petty said, noting that the experience and expertise from related units will all feed into this section. “We are going to have one supervisor who will bring together CID (Criminal Investigation Department), VCU (Violent Crimes Unit), forensic department and other sections of the force that [investigate] crime. A few hours or as soon as possible after a crime, they are going to look at the evidence and see what is to be done.”
For the Operations Directorate under the relevant Assistant Commissioner, the permanent secretary said this year’s focus will be enhancing community policing and road safety. “All of the divisions in the police are going to be under the Operations Directorate and so each of them will have their own community policing plan which will include reducing gang activity in their respective divisions,” Petty stated.
The new Administration, Resources, Technology and Intelligence (ART&I) Directorate will fall under the command of an Assistant Commissioner of Police. “This one will be responsible for what we call future proofing the police,” Mr. Petty said. This brings together the Strategic Intelligence Unit, Telecoms and other information technology related initiatives such as the Closed Caption Television (CCTV) surveillance programme. The national security official added that vehicle maintenance will also fall under the purview of ART&I and tracking capabilities will be installed in police vehicles to assist with patrol assignments and quick response should an emergency arise.
Mr. Petty informed that while each ACP will work independently, there is a collective responsibility to the Commissioner of Police to work collaboratively to promote and enhance citizen safety and security.
“We think the plan is innovative, and we think that it looks critically at the needs of the police but the major point is accountability, that we will hold all of the heads of the directorates accountable to the Commissioner, who is accountable to the permanent secretary, who is accountable to the Prime Minister, in getting these things done,” Petty said.
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