Latest update December 4th, 2024 2:40 AM
SWAT will enhance two of GPF five areas of priority for the period 2013-2017
The emergent Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team is expected to enhance two of the five priorities the nation’s security organization has set out to fulfill within the period of 2013 to 2017.
Senior Superintendent Paul Williams, Force Training Officer, said that through the forces modernization programme, they engaged in a comprehensive training package by the emergency group (TEG) and included the engagement of the UK-based Capita-Symonds Consultancy which drew up the force’s present strategic plan.
members of SWAT pose with senior security officials.
This plan focuses on the force’s five areas of priority; “developing our people, operational priorities, infrastructure, performance and partnership.”
“The SWAT team will enhance two areas of our priorities; developing our people and our operational priorities,” Williams told a gathering of mostly police officers, public and private security officials and stakeholders last Thursday.
The senior police rank had just finished introducing the 27 men who remained after the force’s fanning out programme to achieve the best candidates for the country’s first ever SWAT team.
Williams had told them at the unit’s official launch that the team was part of the force’s modernization process.
This aspect of the process he said is indeed imperative for the modernization of the GPF, “and should be seen for the purpose of a proactive drive for modern policing with modern day practices.”
Williams explained that the force had embarked on the modernization process in 2007 through the Citizen’s Security Programme which had brought about several areas of focus, “and most to highlight; the training package that was done in consultation and full analysis with TEG.”
“That programme has done well for the force, continues to do well and we are imparting it in our training,” the training officer added.
Williams posited further that he has no doubt that the SWAT team will deliver. He said that the team’s training package is well set out and can last for a number of years but, “We need the dedication and commitment of the ranks.”
The package, he related, “is set up for physical fitness, rules of engagement in crisis, it looks at strict compliance on the bearings of record keeping, high level professionalism and ethics, and is also design for continuous enhancement and assessment of ranks on that team.” Williams urged that ranks be pioneers and good examples for other members of the force, and not forgetting the possibility of getting female officers onboard the team.
Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee had outlined an elaborate plan that promised significant changes within the GPF and other entities under the purview of his Ministry.
Facing a gag order in the National Assembly at the time, the Minister had detailed the five-year plan that would see a name change for the police force, the prison service and the fire service.
Rohee had mentioned at that 2013 forum, the intervention of international partners in the Strategic and Implementation Plan to modernize the security sector.
The Minister had explained at the time that the 2013-2017 strategic plan for the GPF would see the implementation of a Strategic Management Department to oversight the implementation process.
The body, Rohee had noted, would see 10 high level civilian professionals being employed in certain positions within the Force to ensure that a high degree of professional technical and efficient input guarantee the implementation of the plan itself.
Eleven years had elapsed after the first initiation of a SWAT unit. The Home Affairs had mentioned approval for the high level task force late last year.
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