March 11, 2008 — The V.I. Police Department is training residents from all walks of life as part-time auxiliary police and inaugurating a high-school police cadet program.
The initiatives are aimed at enhancing community involvement, beefing up police presence on the street and growing the pool of talent from which to recruit full-time officers.
Police Commissioner James McCall held a press conference Tuesday with other high police brass and the folks running the two programs at Frederiksted's Wilbur Francis Police Command, detailing the initiatives.
The police auxiliary program is similar to police auxiliaries in jurisdictions throughout the U.S. and other Caribbean islands, McCall said. They will receive essentially the same training as police recruits, but do not take the police exam, act under the supervision of regular police and work flexible part-time hours at three-quarters the base officer pay.
"We're getting a very diverse group of interested citizens," said Police Training Director Douglas Jones. "Anglo-Americans, African-Americans, some of our Arab-Americans here have signed up. We are looking at a really mixed group of people who want get involved."
Auxiliary candidates will take 336 hours of classes over 18 weeks, said Officer Gleston McIntosh, senior training cadre for the V.I. Police Academy. Courses cover many topics, including the V.I. Code and the U.S. Constitution, writing reports, defensive driving, traffic enforcement, personal defense and ethics, McIntosh said.
Anyone interested in getting involved, helping out the police and making a little money may attend an an orientation on St. Croix from 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at the Patrick Sweeney Police Command, and from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday on St. Thomas in the University of the Virgin Islands' Chase Auditorium, Room B110. Just show up to either orientation session. For more information, call Hansen at 712-6003 or email him.
Alphonso Boyce is directing the police cadet program.
"Classes are similar to the police recruit curriculum," Boyce said. "When they are done, they will have an overview of the police field. It will help provide us with productive, law-abiding citizens, and may help secure future police recruits."
Students will get a stipend and help with post-high school education, McCall said.
"The overwhelming majority of our kids are the greatest kids you can find," McCall said. "These are kids we want to help. We would like to keep our best and brightest here in the territory. We will pay a stipend, we'll help encourage continuing education, we will help with funding for classes at UVI … in exchange for giving back."
Giving back in this case would be working with the police as police auxiliary or becoming an officer.
Students age 16 to 19 can apply. There are openings for up to 30 cadets in each district. To qualify, cadets must be enrolled in school or GED classes. Students can apply through their schools. Classes begin 8 a.m. March 29 on both campuses of UVI, so if you are interested, check right away with your school about signing up.
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