100 RBPF recruits graduate

100 RBPF recruits graduate

Olympian Ramon Miller amongst graduates, receives baton of honour

 

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – More boots are on the ground in the fight against crime as 100 police recruits graduated from the police training college on Thursday.

For the first time in the history of the police force, the training program was enhanced to mirror international training standards, according to Marvin Dames, Minister of National Security.

Dames told Eyewitness News Online that following the manpower audit conducted earlier this year, the new officers will be strategically placed where there is a need.

The national security minister said this takes the effectiveness of the police force to a brand-new level.

“These are the best-trained recruits in the history of the Royal Bahamas Police Force. We talked about creating a level of professionalism and improving the level of professionalism within our law enforcement agencies; this is the beginning of that,” he said.

“They have been trained according to international standards. Prior to that, officers were just ‘trained,’ but, we are now raising the bar and raising the level. The public expects that, they expect more.”

Dames said the enhanced training program will assist the police force with getting a tighter grip on crime.

“It’s extremely important because for far too long the gap between the police and the citizenry has been widening. We have to now cut down on that and the way we do that is; by improving the training level of our officers so that they are better able to connect with the community to move away from an ‘us against them,’ mentality,” Dames said.

“What you are seeing here today is the beginning of a rebranded police force and this is not just superficial, but we are actually demonstrating it through our manpower audit.”

Golden Knight Ramon Miller who anchored the men’s four by four-metre relay also graduated and received the baton of honour.

He spoke to Eyewitness News about why he made the new career choice.

“This is still in the line of serving for my country. I was competing for my country but now I’m serving for my country. This is something that I’ve always wanted to do, but because I was always competing I never had the importunity to do it. But, I’m here today and thankful to the Force for accepting me and hopefully all goes well,” Miller said.

About Theo Sealy

Theo Sealy is an award-winning journalist who serves as senior broadcast reporter and weekend TV news anchor at Eyewitness News. He has achieved several career milestones, including his work as a field contributor with CNN, his coverage of four consecutive general elections, his production of several docuseries and his Bahamas Press Club Awards win for “Best Television News Story” in 2018.