Regional Security System (RSS) Officers deployed to Saint Lucia to assist with crime-fighting have been encouraged to look out for each other as an essential part of their mission.
“This is very important. Our lives are at risk,” Major Dalton Graham, Commander of the First Battalion of the Antigua and Barbuda Regiment told the ranks.
“Whatever you can do to protect your lives, protect your buddies’ lives, I encourage you to do so,” Graham stated.
Deputy Commissioner Albert Wade of the Royal Police Force of Antigua & Barbuda also addressed the RSS officers.
He told them they were in Saint Lucia to ensure that the citizens of Saint Lucia could walk the streets without fear.
And Wade urged the ranks to be careful.
“Be your brothers and sisters’ keeper,” the Antigua & Barbuda senior police officer stated.
The Commanding Officer of the Barbados Regiment, Pedro Drakes, thanked Saint Lucia’s Police Commissioner, Crusita Descartes-Pelius, for providing relevant intelligence to enable the visiting troops to conduct their duties safely.
“There have been no casualties so far during the operation,” Drakes observed.
The senior officers of the Royal Police Force of Antigua & Barbuda, the Antigua & Barbuda Defence Force, the Barbados Police Service, the Barbados Defence Force, and the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force, visited the RSS ranks here last week.
The security heads all agreed that the rise in crime and gun violence impacted all the islands.
The visiting senior law enforcement officials also noted the need for regional countries to strengthen ties to maintain law and order and protect the public.
In addition to meeting RSS officers here, the visitors met with Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre, responsible for National Security.
