Fees charged by the Bureau of Motor Vehicles will be raised $2 beginning Tuesday to fund establishment of Peace Officer’s Standard Training Council, according to a joint statement by Police Commissioner Rodney F. Querrard Sr. and BMV Director Jerris T. Browne.
The statement issued Wednesday said the purpose of the POST Council will be to develop uniform training standards for all local peace officers.
The POST Council was established during the 23rd Legislature by former Sen.r Gregory A. Bennerson Jr., a 25-year-veteran of the V.I. Police Department, who recognized the need for the territory’s peace officers to attain certification equal to their stateside counterparts. That certification is achieved through the council.
The POST Council is mandated to, among other responsibilities, provide high quality training to V.I. officers through the VIPD Police Academy, certify and decertify peace officers, adopt a comprehensive standards program and conduct assessments on those programs.
Since its inception, the council has been hampered by a lack of funding, according to Wednesday’s news release. In 2000, during the 23rd Legislature, the Senate enacted Bill No. 23-0306 (Act No. 6391) to fund the POST Council by increasing fees associated with the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
All BMV transactions, including vehicle inspection, vehicle title and driver’s licenses, were legislated to be increased by $2.
A complete list of fees can be viewed at local BMV offices.
“The increase was never implemented due to the government, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the Police Department being cognizant of the continuing economic hardships that many Virgin Islanders face,” Browne said.
Querrard said implementing the mandates of the POST Council is crucial.
“We can no longer delay the implementation of POST," the chief said. "An effective POST Council can determine the level of success of law enforcement and its ability to curtail crime in our community. The council will ensure that the training and guidelines encompassing all local peace officers will be on par with the VIPD. This implementation will strengthen the manpower of the VIPD by augmenting it with equally trained local Virgin Islands peace officers.”
I am an advocate of having a POST council to standardize the training for all law enforcement officers in the Virgin Islands. In many state side POST councils they certify the law enforcement officers and monitor their training to make sure each officer is in compliance with the training standards. The Post Council have the authority to revoke the certification of officers who do not meet the training standards in any giving period. By losing the certification, the individual officer will lose his or her arrest powers, until such time they meet the standards. Also POST have the authority to revoke the certification of an officer if he or she violates a law, is arrested or convicted, or have been found to be unfit by not meeting the moral or ethical standards set by POST.
The only concern I have is that POST should be a separate agency who have the sole responsibility to set the training standards, provide training, and certify all local law enforcement officers in the Virgin Islands. POST should determine the standard of training and keep training records of all the law enforcement officers to make sure the officers are in compliance. By being a separate agency if an officer’s certification is revoked,and he or she subsequently fired from his or her agency, Post will have no connection to a grievance if the officer files one for being fired. Once you lose your certification, an officer loses his or her arrest powers, and if their department wish to keep the affected person on, it can not be in the capacity of a certified law enforcement officer.
I believe we are heading in the right direction with training our local law enforcement officers, we just have to tweak the way POST is established. It should be an independent agency, which will help eliminate bias in the way training is conducted,which can favor one agency over another if one of the police departments is the one setting the standards and providing the training.
Kevin Hewitt