Deputy Commissioner of Police Alwyn James said that GPS equipment will allow the force to monitor the performance of officers, review their patrol patterns, and locate vehicles in times of emergency. Photo: VINO

Deputy Commissioner of Police Alwyn James has given residents of these Virgin Islands the assurance that the force is taking every step to raise the level of services in serving and protecting the Territory. Photo: VINO

Mr James gave this assurance on January 28, 2014 when he spoke of several initiatives including the equipping of patrol vehicles with technologically advanced equipment and more bullet proof vests for police officers.

According to Mr James equipping the vehicles with the new devices would make the officers on patrol more effective in their duties as it would eliminate to a greater extent the need to return to the office to input and access data when the need arises.

 “Officers in the field will be able to update reports, check registration, license of vehicles, drivers’ details, all from their cars without returning to the station. It’s going to be faster,” he said.

He noted that there would be several other advantages with then devices in place that would eliminate the need to return to the office/station.

Mr James noted that in order to better communicate with multiple patrol officers and vehicles simultaneously, the RVIPF also has invested healthily financially and said the results would be two fold as he noted that they will also be better able to keep closer eyes on cops while in the street.

This will be in the form of GPS systems in their vehicles. He said that the system is already in place and is linked to a main control centre.

 “That is linked to our control room to reduce our response time, monitor the performance of our officers, review their patrol patterns, and in time of emergency we will be able to locate our vehicles in the case of anything,” state Mr James.

 “Soon, all our officers on patrol duty will be wearing their bullet-proof vests because they will be all equipped,” noted Mr James.