BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – TWENTY-ONE young men and 11 young women were yesterday (Nov. 9) charged to exude the traits of a professional upon successful completion of their course in becoming officers of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force (RSCNPF).
This charge was made by Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security, Osmond Petty at the opening ceremony of the RSCNPF’s Recruit Training Course Number 40 at the Police Training Complex in Basseterre.
“I would like to see all of you when you finish this course have the traits of being a professional policeman.”
Petty also explained what he meant by those traits, which he said included pride, teamwork, trustworthiness, honesty and humility.
Earlier in his address to the Recruits, he used the opportunity to revert to his days as a teacher by explaining what he meant by the acronym PROFESSIONALISM.
In his explanation of the first letter of the acronym, Petty told the eager-face Recruits that it spoke to “Pride”, which speaks to the feeling of being proud.
“You must be proud of yourself as an individual, you must be proud of the Police Force as a whole and people must be proud of you. Nobody going to be proud of you if they see you down the road with others smoking drugs. Nobody would be proud of you if you are undercover in a gang but then you become a member of a gang.”
The permanent Secretary told the potential officers that there were individuals in the Police Force who were caught going to Nevis with drugs and that they are to be fired.
“So,” he continued, “a professional policeman has pride in him or herself. Pride in being a policeman and the Police Force is proud of them.”
The Force Personnel Officer, Clifford Govia, who also spoke at the opening ceremony, commended the Recruits on the decision they had taken.
“I thank you for really cementing, deciding to be a Police Recruit. We need you now more than ever. We just don’t need you to be an ordinary recruit, but rather we are saying to you that right now, as the great Adventist writer wrote that the greatest want of the world is the want of young men and young women who cannot and must not be bought or sold.”
He charged them to develop the attitude that they want to be trained to such a degree that they would be able to strike fear in the hearts of those who do evil. “I want you to develop the skills so that you will be able to identify and prevent and bring to justice anyone who wants to victimise and oppress those in our society.”
In his brief remarks, Acting Commissioner of Police Stafford Liburd told the Recruits to keep the Force’s Mission Statement in mind, “for it is important for you to understand it”.
He informed them that members of the Police Force are constantly on the public’s radar and they should at all times execute their duties within the ambit of the law.
“I want to say to you that the public has been critical of us, and those criticisms ought to shape us into better and more positive individuals. We must understand that we are living in a democratic world and people are free to speak and, sometimes though, some speak even without proper or accurate information. But even though they lack information in some of the things they may say, we must try our best to dispel that by doing what is right all the time...doing what is proper all the time. And once you are in the right, I believe that our cases will succeed in court or some of the criticisms will be proven so false that I believe they will come back and apologise to us.”
Deputy Commandant of the Police Training Complex, Inspector Eldrin Dickenson also had words of advice for the 32 Recruits.
“You must have a vision as to where you want to go from here having successfully completed your training. You need to listen attentively and constructively to instructions, because it is important. You must show your colleagues on the course that you care about their needs. You must be honest with your dealings and have no double standards. You must be transparent in your day-to-day operation while you are in training. You must be accountable for your actions and decisions that you make during your training.”
Dickenson expressed the hope that all the Recruits would be successful at the end of the course, because “the Force needs you”.
