Police better prepared to deal with victims of crime

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ANGUILLA — Officers of the Royal Anguilla Police Force and the British Virgin Islands Police Service have benefited from a week long Family Liaison Officer, FLO training program from the 30th November to 4th December 2015 here in Anguilla.

The training conducted by Mr. Phil Stokoe, former UK police Superintendent was delivered at the Police Training Room; Police Headquarters and was attended by four officers from the RAPF and two from the BVIPS.

During the 5 days participants were exposed to topics such as, What is a Family Liaison Officer, The Role of the Family Liaison Officer, How and when to deploy a FLO and the Skills that a FLO should possess.

“I am happy that we were able to work with the Governor’s Office to provide this training with assistance from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office,” said Commissioner of Police, Paul Morrison. “I am also just as pleased to have had the participation of officers from the British Virgin Island.”

“As the British Overseas Territories continue to collaborate with each other we will see more and more of this kind of sharing of technical and other support service,” said the COP.

FLOs who are usually excellent investigators with good communication and listening skills are normally deployed when there is an unexplained death particularly in respect to homicides. They can also be deployed in other critical incidents where family liaison might enhance the effectiveness of the police response.

Critical incidents are incidents where the effectiveness of the police response is likely to have a significant impact on the confidence of the victim, their family and/or the community.