Commandant of the Regional Police Training Centre Sylvester Louis
There is need for training of senior police officers across the region, especially those above the rank of Inspector.
Commandant of the Regional Police Training Centre, Sylvester Louis told an audience at the 137th passing out parade last evening; “In examining training for police officers in the region, we have noticed that there is a dire need for expanded training for officers above the rank of Inspector.
“Given the complexity of managing modern police agencies, it is absolutely critical that we rectify this looming deficit. Indeed, executive training development has now become a priority.”
Addressing the graduation ceremony of 52 recruits from Barbados, Anguilla, and British Virgin Islands, Louis said there was also need for exposure to theory and practice, singling out areas like executive leadership and ethics, strategic management, information systems and managing human and financial resources as training needs.
The Commandant also spoke to the effectiveness of the advance senior training programme, of which he said he was very pleased that it was being utilised by several forces and organisations for the training of their personnel.
He pointed out 10 forces, including Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica, St. Lucia, Turks and Caicos to name a few that had been utilising the services, and local agencies including the Barbados Defence Force, the Immigration Department, the Court Processing Department, the Transport Board and Sagicor that had also made use of the Centre’s services.
“During the year we conducted 24 senior courses and workshops for 427 students. Let me state here and now that I am particularly enthused by the willingness of these forces and organisations for their eagerness to continue participating in our various programmes,” he said.
Louis also touched on the issue of housing, on which he said they had already begun to make some headway.
“It must be noted that we are hamstrung due to a lack of suitable residential accommodation for senior officers. To this end, I have been promised some assistance from Colonel Alvin Quintyne and some international donors to have this anomaly rectified. So soon, very soon, we may be seeing some movement in that area.”
The handing over today of the completed cyber lab at the Christ Church-based Centre, he also observed, will now greatly assist the force in training to deal with cyber crime investigations and computer forensics, something Acting Commissioner of Police Tyrone Griffith said in his address would come in handy for the local force. (LB)