Basseterre, St. Kitts, August 25, 2017 (SKNIS): The Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force (RSCNPF) is continuing its recruitment efforts in order to support its many security operations aimed at maintaining peaceful communities.
At a press conference on August 25 convened by the Police High Command, Commissioner of Police, Ian Queeley, disclosed that in the last six months there had been an increased focus on attracting new persons to the Force. Individuals with strong academic and technical backgrounds and good moral character are being targeted. The efforts, so far, have resulted in the recruitment of 34 persons locally – a class that is currently in training. To date, they have completed half of the syllabus and for the last two months, have been an integral part of the ongoing crime prevention activity dubbed “Operation Mid Sweep”, according to Commissioner Queeley.
The continuing recruitment efforts have also led the RSCNPF to expand their efforts regionally in order to acquire the numbers necessary to support all of their operations. To date, they have enlisted 45 persons from St. Vincent and the Grenadines for an additional class that will commence training before the end of this year. Recruitment and capacity building through training have been priorities within the Service Improvement Directorate, which is led by Deputy Commissioner of Police, Hilroy Brandy. He said that 30 of those recruits arrived in the Federation on Wednesday, August 30.
“We had a shortage of officers in the organization and we went locally and regionally, [did] advertisements and as a result, we recently visited St. Vincent. [We] did some interviews, did Eye Detect [tests], did polygraph [tests] and yesterday (August 23) was the result. 30 persons came to St. Kitts and we’re continuing the process…to see how much of those 30 we can [swear] in to be officers of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force. Presently, we are still doing advertisements in trying to attract the brightest and the best to our organization. So persons out there who still have [an] interest, or still want to be a member of this noble organization are still eligible to apply to the force personnel officer,” Deputy Commissioner Brandy said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris was present at the Robert L. Bradshaw (RLB) International Airport to greet the first group of recruits from St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
“We will do our very best to make you happy. The Commissioner’s responsibility is to do that and we expect you to learn quickly [and] to understand security quickly so that you are able to respond to the needs for law and order in our country. We welcome you with open arms. We know that this is going to be an interesting experience for you and you can reach very far, so I just wanted to come to let you know that you are our special guests. We welcome you into our Force and we will provide all that we reasonably can to ensure your comfort while you work hard to ensure the peace and safety of our country,” Prime Minister Dr. Harris said. (00:30-01:24 mins)
The recruits left the RLB Airport for the Police Training School where they were formally briefed and told about the next step in the process. The RSCNPF intends to recruit some 60 persons in total this year.
