EC$2.7 Million for Police Development Project

Contact: Roger Joseph

Thursday, February 10, 2000 – Prime Minister, Honourable Dr. Kenny D. Anthony and British High Commissioner for St. Lucia and the Eastern Caribbean, His Excellency Mr. Gordon Baker, today signed a 2.7 million E.C. dollar agreement for the St. Lucia Police Development Project.  The project seeks to provide consultancy services by experts from the United Kingdom to modernize and improve police services in St. Lucia, to make the Police Force more efficient and responsive to public needs.

Commenting on the agreement, Dr. Anthony said government has promised repeatedly that it would work towards reforming the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force and better equip it to deal with the challenges of law enforcement. "Today, we have signed a document that will pave the way for the kind of support that we have always needed to reform, redesign and restructure the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force," he said.

The Prime Minister assured the British High Commissioner that the Government of Saint Lucia was playing its part in police reform as so far 150 new police officers had been recruited and trained in the last two years and the police had been provided with equipment including vehicles and motor cycles. The government, Dr. Anthony noted, had also employed Beach Rangers to deal with problems on the beaches and ease the pressure on the police force.

Additionally, Prime Minister Anthony said, government has started work on the construction of a new police station at Marchand and within the next few months renovation and construction would commence on other police stations throughout the island. The British government’s contribution, he suggested, was assisting the government in dealing with all the problems with the force simultaneously. "This project will not only provide advice in terms of developing the human resource capacity of the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force but to carry out the urgent institutional changes that are needed within the police force, including of course, the legal infrastructure which the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force has inherited," Dr. Anthony said.

In signing the agreement, the British High Commissioner said his government’s contribution, through the Department for International Development, was in support of St. Lucia’s efforts, particularly in light of the fight against drug trafficking and other serious crimes. He expressed support as well for the concept of community policing that the Force was trying to develop.

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