RVIPF serious about community policing – deputy police commissioner
BVI News Staff - Monday, March 19th, 2012 at 2:10 AM
Police Commissioner Reynell Frazer (right) and Deputy Commissioner David Morris. * File photo
Deputy Police Commissioner David Morris said the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force (RVIPF) remains committed to improving relations between the police and the public.
Morris said community policing is a priority as the RVIPF recently launched a five-point plan to take the constabulary through the remainder of the year and possibly for the next three years.
“And that is how we go about improving the community trust in us, how we go about improving the community’s safety, and to do that is about how we develop and deploy our staff working within the budget that is set,” he said.
Morris further explained: “As regards to trust and confidence, the only way we can be successful of that, is if you are working in partnership and that partnership is around the police, is around the community itself, and its around government. And in order to do that, we need to be more visible.
“It’s our intention to start introducing neighbourhood policing into our local communities with dedicated named police officers working in our local communities, addressing the needs of those communities. That’s not necessarily about reducing crime, because we have to do that anyway, but it is about looking about the quality of life issues for our communities. We do get complaints of noise, cars making loud noises after 10, 11, 12 at nights, disturbing the quality of life for residents; we get complaints of disturbances in the streets, derelict vehicles, and so we as a policing service, working in partnership with the community and the local government, must address those needs, which are not necessarily crime-related, but do impact on the quality of life of people and that is around neighbourhood policing.”
The deputy police commissioner said by addressing these issues, “by showing the community that we are out there and more visible, the public will start to have trust and confidence in the police and thereby making people feel more safe where they live, work and make the territory more safe for visitors”.
However, Morris said before all of this can be accomplished a number of measures must be taken within the force.
“We need to develop our staff, we need additional police officers to be able to do that, because at the same time we still have to address the crime issues, reducing crime, detecting crime and that is not the crime of what just happens in the streets but serious organized crime as well. It also about our staff when they engage with the community, they need to be more professional, be more respectful, when they speak to victims of crime they need to keep them informed of what’s happening to their crimes and addressing them,” Morris said.
The deputy also disclosed that the police will soon launch its Control Room in Road Town, which will among other things, improve the response times by officers to crimes when reported by the community.
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Some of the challenges of developing a community policing style is to build the initial bridge between the community and officers. Having officers who have an open mind to try a different style of policing- which is about building relationships and lines of communication with the public rather than just a reactive style of policing- is essential.
It dont necessary need more officers, because what i notice everytime a batch of officers return from training you all create some kind of office to put them. The more officers u get the less u see, bring back some of the officers that have left.
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