Commissioner’s Parade held in Cayon
Police Force pays homage to oldest resident

By Terresa McCall
Reporter-SKNVibes.com

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE second Commissioner’s Parade out of Basseterre was today (Nov. 27) held in Cayon following which parading officers paid homage to the oldest person in the Federation, Florence Baker.

At 7:30 a.m. sharp, some 100 members of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force assembled in Cayon at the Police Station and marched to the Cayon Primary School where the parade and inspection was held.

Commissioner of Police Austin Williams inspected the members of the five platoons on parade, after which he announced that Woman Police Constable Pearline Tross and Police Constable Marlon Ottley were the two officers who had the “Best Turnout”.

SKNVibes has learnt that quite a number of officers were “booked for committing infractions on the parade”.

Following the inspection, the officers put on a brilliant display of drills and paraded through the Streets of Cayon.

The Commissioner, who stood at the round-about located in the vicinity of the Cayon Police Station, took the ‘Eyes-right’ from the parading officers on the march pass. The parade then continued to the home of the Federation’s oldest individual, 110-year-old Florence Baker, to whom the Commissioner presented gifts and wished good health and happiness.

Commissioner Williams, in an interview with SKNVibes, explained that the Commissioner’s Parade was first held outside of the Basseterre area earlier in the year. Sandy Point was the venue for that parade.

He said the parade has a number of purposes which include forging a better police/public relationship.

“It is a traditional parade for the Commissioner to meet and inspect the ranks of the officers. It was traditionally monthly and we don’t do it now monthly. 

We sought to take it to the rural areas now to showcase the officers and try to build a police/public relation through this means. We also decided to have it during school hours so that the students and teachers could witness it and become aware of who the police officers are. It’s a form of reaching out to the community.”  ~~Adz:Right~~

He further explained that “the parade is to expose the police officers to the children and to encourage them to join the police force. This is especially so because we are struggling to get nationals to join the police force; therefore, we want to get the younger generation interested.”

Students and teachers of the Cayon Primary School were witnesses to the occasion.