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BASSETERRE, St Kitts (SKNIS)-- Standardized recruitment and training and use of force will be among draft policy documents to be considered by security chiefs of the Regional Security System (RSS) at their upcoming conference in Antigua.

The proposed policies were developed by the members of the RSS Training Institute Practice Committee who met in St Kitts last week for a five-day conference.

Commander Tyrone James, the RSS Director of Operations and Training, highlighted the importance of the documents.

“We dealt with recruitment, a problem solving model, [and] use of force policy – which I think was critical as it determines how and when a police officer should use his weapon,” he stated. “We also looked at instructor qualification and additionally, we have also done some work on the syllabus for the initial police training i.e. the basic police course.”

James singled out training and stressed that it was important for the efficient functioning of members who are likely to be deployed in emergency situations.

“If we have, for instance, St Kitts training one way and Antigua training a different way and we have to mobilise to support St Lucia, then what we find is when we get there, we won’t know how each other functions ... providing more challenges to St Lucia than assistance,” he revealed. “... In terms of the equipment also, that we won’t have a situation where St Kitts ... officers need .22 ammunition [while] another needs .38 ammunition. The cost of that will be tremendous so if we work together and say everybody use .22 ammunition, and everybody understands what a particular term means then once we land on that country instead of trying to understand each other, we’ll just start to work.”

In terms of recruitment, the prevailing thought is that changes are needed there as well.

“Our dynamics are changing,” James stressed. “The police forces have got to start employing technology in crime fighting so we can’t just eliminate a man because he is wearing glasses because what we find is that most of the computer techs because of the time [they spend looking] at the computer screen eventually they have to wear glasses. We have to ensure that what we do is for the benefit of the organization.”

The RSS training director also stressed that firing a weapon and requalification for firing accuracy were also looked at.

“It is one thing to say shooting and to say use weapons but we have to ensure that our populace is safe when the police starts functioning and the only [way] to ensure this is to provide training for the police officers,” said James.

He expressed appreciation to the government of Canada which has committed more than one million Canadian dollars to support the RSS Training Institute Project.

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