fp Turks and Caicos

Police officers will soon be taking up home in new and improved facilities, thanks to an initiative that is bringing together the private and public sector with a common goal.

“The police station is the most deplorable facility I have ever seen for public servants of that importance,” Tourist Safety Committee member Mark Durliat told the fp.

The police headquarters building on Providenciales has been condemned for some time, and it has been on the agenda to move the facility, but lack of funds has stalled the process.

“It is demotivating for the officers to have to work under those conditions,” Durliat said, which was the motivation behind the Tourist Safety Committee joining forces with the government to move the project into overdrive.

“Currently the group are helping us develop our approach to relocating from the old Main Police Station on Old Airport Road, Providenciales.  The focus of this is the Myrtle Rigby Health Centre, but we continue to search for the best option available to us,” Assistant Commissioner of Police Dave Ryder explained.

In searching for a new home, the Myrtle Rigby Clinic was identified by the government as an ideal location, due to its central location and close proximity to other important government buildings such as the hospital and courthouse.

The Myrtle Rigby Health Clinic building was partially vacated by the Ministry of Health when the new hospital facilities opened next door at the Cheshire Hall Medical Center last April. Now the Tourist Safety Committee is giving it the momentum to get kick started.

The Tourist Safety Committee was assembled in August as an initiative between the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force, the governor’s office and members of the Providenciales business community to improve tourist security in the Grace Bay area. One of the first projects they took on was creating a CCTV system for Grace Bay.

This week they have taken on the project of helping the government move a desperately needed project forward.

Ryder, who will be handing over the command of operational policing and the direct fight against violent crime to Deputy Commissioner Sullivan, to take up the responsibility to deliver the ‘special projects’ identified by Commissioner Farquhar and Corporate Services, commented, “I would like to emphasise the type of support that the Committee has given to fighting crime, from servicing and repairing defective police vehicles during times of financial difficulty, to providing food and refreshments for officers working extended tours of duty on what was Alpha 2 and in putting in a range of crime prevention measures in place around the Bight and in Grace Bay.  I feel it important to make the point that the work of this group has enabled extra police resources to be deployed all across Providenciales, so that everyone benefits and not just the area of their operations.”

He says the group is now providing real assistance in the delivery of the Commissioners vision of moving from Main Station and “are proving to be a very valuable partner in helping us achieve key areas of work to deliver a better service to the community.”

A group of volunteers from several of the resort operators including the Ocean Club, Hartling Group and the Grace Bay Resorts pulled up their sleeves and cleaned out the facility April 5 as a first step in getting it ready for renovations.

“We are moving all the leftover supplies to a storage facility,” said Marc Romkey, Hartling Group commercial asset manager.

The group plans to meet April 8 to put together a plan, cost budget and timeline for renovating the facility which will allow the police to move into the facility as quickly as possible.

Volunteering their professional expertise in various areas, the group hopes to help underwrite the project and get it through the planning stages.

The group looks to have a plan in place within the next few weeks that will allow the renovation work to start as soon as possible.

“We want to make something happen fast,” Durliat said. Given the speed at which they have reacted in the past, hope looms for police officers that they will finally be given a proper facility in which to operate.

The Ministry of Health does continue to use the facility for some purposes such as a public lab, for which Permanent Secret in the Ministry of Health Judith Campbell says she is already looking to find a new home.