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PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos Islands; Monday, December 1, 2008 – AS a rapidly developing country, the Turks and Caicos Islands has and will continue to play host to heads of countries, dignitaries and celebrities, along with others needing an extra measure of security. With this as the backdrop, the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force has seen it fit to create new initiatives for the protection of residents and visitors to these shores.
After three weeks of intensive training, eleven officers received certification in Security and Intelligence/V.I.P Protection. The course, the first of its kind to take place in the TCI, saw an award presentation being held at the Police' new Chalk Sound station in Providenciales, on Friday November 28.
Hon. Galmo Williams, Minister of Home Affairs and Public Safety - saluted the 10 men, lone female officer, and the facilitators for putting on the course. "I think that as we modernise our country and as our country develops, it should not only be in the infrastructure or buildings, but it should also be in the development of our human resources, and particular our police force."
As the force grows, the Hon. Minister said he was happy to see that they were focusing on different areas of training, "as this area of training has come at such an important time, as the world that we are living in is not as safe as it used to be, and it takes not only the ammunition and the man power, but takes intelligence, and I hope that over the past three weeks, that whatever knowledge was shared with you all, that you will take advantage of it in the future."
The Security and Intelligence/V.I.P Protection course covered areas such as the Role of the Security and Intelligence Bureau (SIB) as an intelligence agency; integrated intelligence; sources of information, informants and informants handling; setting up and running the intelligence function: creating collection plans; briefing and debriefing; and link analysis.
Additionally, officers had surveillance theory sessions with practical scenarios and learnt the history of assassinations: causes and methods; improvised explosive devises (IED) and security perimeters: theory and practical.
Facilitated by ASP Robert Sherman-Young, Asst Superintendent at the Royal Bahamas Police Training College and Sergeant Foster Tucker, of the Royal Bahamas Police Force, officers were instructed to carry out full practical exercises, which involved the planning for the visit of a head of state to include use of intelligence for his/her personal protection from collection from the airport- to return to the airport, residence, special functions, security of vehicles and the use of non SIB persons.
On reflection, Commissioner of Police Mr. Edward Hall spoke of an embarrassing incident that he termed as a "colossal mistake", from which he promised himself that no such incident would occur again under his leadership. "You are now being put on notice," said Commissioner Hall to the officers, "you have absolutely no excuse that such as incident or anything liking to it should never happen again."
"I am looking to you to be able to professionally advise those persons about where you think they can and cannot go, or what you think they can or should not do; and be forceful in your tact to do it."
The Police Chief went on to add that: "this course not only comes at time when we need to be doing things right, but also because we need to be seen as the professionals we are." With that, he implored all officers to keep up with their training, current affairs, do their due diligence when they know who they will be protecting, keep fit, and be knowledgeable about our society.
ASP Sherman-Young said that whenever training is conducted in the TCI, all students put their best foot forward and represent their force well. "What we say to you is to keep on that trend, keep up the professionalism. When you go out there, and you engage in your VIP duties; we say to you, represent your country, represent your force, also represent yourself; and if you don't do that which is learnt, then you will disappoint all the other police officers out there." Moreover, "VIP is one of those areas you cannot afford to fall down on because of the magnitude of what you're doing."
The facilitator then made mention that there were plans for the Bahamas to become the regional police training centre for the Caribbean; and in his opinion, the Turks and Caicos has to be involved. "We will ensure that what ever we do, the Turks and Caicos will not be left behind and certainly as you become better than us, we will be looking to you all for the provision of training."
"This is the joy of working with your sister nation," said ASP Sherman-Young, "we try to support each other and whatever service we can afford to you we will do that."
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