RSVGPF to take a more pro-active approach to policing

This year, the Royal St Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force (RSVGPF) intends to be a lot more pro-active in its approach to policing.

“We have the Cari-SECURE project which we are collecting better data, so that we will be better able to direct our resources where it is more needed,” Commissioner of Police (COP) Colin John told SEARCHLIGHT last week during an interview.

“We have coming on stream the CCTV footage and that would enhance our detection rate and help in deterring person from committing offences,” he added.

CariSECURE – Strengthening Evidence Based Decision Making for Citizen Security in the Caribbean, is a component of the USAID’s Youth Empowerment Services (YES) project, made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the technical assistance of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The goal of the CariSECURE project is to improve youth crime and violence policy making and programming in the Southern and Eastern Caribbean through the use of quality, comparable and reliable national citizen security information.

The CCTV footage to which the COP referred, is the installation of CCTV cameras in Kingstown, with the help of the Government of Taiwan under the Systems and Technology Cooperation agreement, and the International Cooperation and Development Fund.

The installation of the surveillance cameras in the Kingstown has already been completed.

The COP added further that they are putting cameras in hotspots, and areas like the tourism belts.

The RSVGPF is also looking at different aspects of training for officers and there are plans to re-activate the K9/police dog unit this year.

“We are working with different stakeholders, and we had a consultation last year with the Argyle International Airport to revive that (K9)… because we are an international airport and we don’t want the name of St. Vincent and the Grenadines to be tarnished if drugs leave from here and end up overseas,” said the Commissioner.

He expressed thanks on behalf of the RSVGPF to the public for its support and also criticisms as, “it has helped to make the organization better.”

Thanking the men and women of the constabulary for their hard work, the COP used the opportunity to point out that there are 108 new recruits in training, the largest intake so far.

“And we want to utilize them to ensure St. Vincent and the Grenadines is safe,” Commissioner John concluded.