Soualiga Patrol Unit
to get new uniforms
PHILIPSBURG--The fourteen Voluntary Corps VKS officers who form the Soualiga Patrol Unit (SPU) will receive four months’ training in island regulations and new uniforms to become extraordinary police officers.
Voluntary Corps Acting Commander First Lieutenant Paul Martens told The Daily Herald the Tourist Office was working on a tourism-oriented course for the officers to follow. The course will instruct the officers on information about the island and how to deal with the tourists as clients.
The officers will be supervised by the police and authorised to make arrests and carry side arms. In addition, they will be trained in issuing fines, writing reports and dealing with disputes.
The SPU is already visible in Philipsburg. For the past month, the members have worked two shifts: 8:00am to 4:00pm and 4:00pm to midnight.
Martens said the Executive Council had decided that the SPU would receive formal training starting June 30. The unit will work out of the second level office at Captain Hodge Wharf’s new shopping centre. In addition, bicycles will be available to increase its mobility in the daytime and two quad bikes for night patrol.
The new uniforms will include blue polo shirts, dark blue pants, comfortable shoes and berets. “Soualiga Patrol Unit” will be written on the back of the shirts to identify the wearers.
SPU was formed to increase security in the Philipsburg area after criminal activity in the area left residents and the government concerned about damage to the tourism industry. The unit’s main concern will be to curtail attacks on and robberies and harassment of tourists, residents and businesses in the area.
The officers will remain members of the VKS, but will be paid as civil servants employed by the Island Government. The VKS has assisted police on a voluntary basis the last four years. Martens said this assistance continued even though several of the officers had been transferred to SPU.
He said it was likely that more officers would be added to the police assistance programme after VKS training of new recruits was finished. He also said there was a possibility that some of the some candidates would be added to the SPU.
The news of the SPU’s performance has already gained the approval of many within the community. It comes after months of debate with members of the Island Government who expressed openly their concern that the Police Chief Commissioner of the Windward Islands Derrick Holiday, charged with forming the team, had not been acting swiftly enough.
In his defence, Holiday had warned that to simply select candidates and give them certain powers without following a rigorous recruitment procedure to weed out unwanted elements would be risky and could hamper the operation’s future. (Alfred Harley)
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