Rather than going abroad for command and other related training, members of the Management Team of the Royal Anguilla Police Force are the recipients of two weeks of separate on-the-spot training, under the theme “Committed to Serve & Protect”.
One component of the course is Public Order Command and Desktop Training. The facilitators are British Police officials: Chief Superintendent Richard Morgan, Superintendent Darren Wildbore and Sergeant Mike Smith.
The other component of the course is Public Order Training. The facilitators are Acting Superintendent Steven Donnelly, Sergeant Michael Thomas, Constable Brian MacNab and Constable Andy Beaupierre, all of the Bermuda Police Service; and Sergeant Daniel Cowan of the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service.
The opening ceremony, on Monday, January 12, at the Police Training Room, was chaired by Acting Superintendent of Police in Anguilla, Marva Brooks.
Commissioner Rudolph Proctor hoped that at the end of the training “the Royal Anguilla Police Force, and the people of Anguilla, would be the beneficiaries – and the Force would have the capacity and capability to respond to any public order issues.”
Both Sergeant Mike Smith of the British Police team, and Acting Superintendent Steven Donnelly of the Bermuda Police Service, spoke about the two particular areas of the training.
Just before the actual start of the training, Attorney General, Rupert Jones, spoke about a 20-page hand-out which he prepared for the course participants and which outlined various laws of Anguilla. Three matters he suggested the police officers should ponder on were that the use of force is a last resort; that force, if it has to be used, should be reasonable and proportionate; and that if police officers are in any doubt as to the lawfulness of any powers they might want to use, they should seek legal advice from the Attorney General’s Chambers.
Mr Jones also listed five wide topics covered in his hand-out. They were: the potential public order offenses under Anguilla’s laws; the powers of the Police relating to arrest and search; the rights of individuals under the Constitution; lawful grounds to evoke emergency powers; and what emergency powers might look like. He observed that the fourth and fifth topics are unlikely to be applied except in extremely large or widespread cases of public disorder.
