Royal Virgin Islands Police Force

Our Strategic Priorities

Strategic Overview

The RVIPF Senior Management Team and H.E Governor have reviewed the vision, mission statement and values of the force to ensure they remain modern and reflective of the current operating environment.

Our mission serves to describe the purpose of the RVIPF, whilst the vision outlines where we aspire to be by 2011. Our values provide a strong moral and ethical set of principles governing how we will undertake and conduct our business in the delivery of our mission and achievement of our vision.

Our Mission

Our mission is to make the Virgin Islands a safe environment for all people we serve.
This will be achieved through our core objectives of:

Providing visible and responsive policing activities within the community
Upholding the law and ensuring that offenders are brought to justice
Reducing crime and the fear of crime

Our Vision (by 2011)

By adopting a professional policing approach and working in partnership with the community and other law enforcement agencies, we will ensure that the Virgin Islands remain one of the safest territories in the Caribbean.

Our Values

Our core values define how we will deliver our business, in terms of our interactions with the community as well as our own staff. Our values are to:

To treat everyone fairly;
To be open and honest, acting with integrity;
To build trust with the community, working in partnership to achieve results; and
To embrace change to improve service delivery.

Our Six Strategic Priorities

The following provides a summary of each of the six strategic priorities. We will use these strategic priorities to inform annual business plans which will outline in detail the actions we will put in place to achieve each priority. The actions shown below provide an illustration of the advances we intend to make.

Stemming from our mission and vision is the formation of six strategic priorities which will direct the activities of the force for the next 3 years (2009-2011), namely:

To improve public confidence and trust in the RVIPF;
To improve operational policing performance in order to reduce crime; improve detections and bring offenders to justice;
To protect the Virgin Islands borders and to strengthen counter terrorism capability;
To create a dynamic workforce by attracting quality staff as well as improving the morale and motivation of existing staff;
To maximise efficiency and improve service delivery; and
To embed a culture of strategic planning and performance management within the RVIPF.

Strategic Priority 1

To improve public confidence and trust in the RVIPF

A consistent theme emerging from community consultations with the force is the need to reduce the fear of crime by providing a visible and responsive police presence on the streets. To address this, we aim to provide more citizen focused policing, enabling us to effectively engage with communities, thereby building an improved trust based relationship between the police and public. Additionally, a community focused approach will also enable the force to fight crime more intelligently by involving local people in the solution to the kind of crime that impact on their areas and the territory as a whole.

This is not simply about providing an increased presence. We must reassure the public and increase satisfaction amongst those who come into contact with the police service, especially victims and witnesses who are at the heart of this plan. We must provide high quality services which respond to the needs of all our communities.

We will deliver this priority by:

Ensuring the effective delivery of a community policing model in each community;
Encourage direct public participation in the duties of the force through a Cadet scheme, Police Band and through the instigation of Special Constables to operate within communities;

Reviewing our structures and resources to ensure they are directed towards the delivery of community policing;
Improving our contact and support for victims of crime;
Giving the public a real say in how they are policed in their communities;
Making it easier to contact the police;
Providing meaningful feedback to the public about what we are doing; and
Improve public confidence through the effective handling and investigation of complaints.

Strategic Priority 2

To improve operational policing performance in order to reduce crime; improve detections and bring offenders to justice.

We will deliver strong policing performance as part of a wider cross society effort to reduce crime; to detect crime when it occurs and thereby bring offenders to justice.

We will deliver this priority by developing our policing capability through:

Training and developing staff to address immediate and long term skills needs. Where appropriate, this may include the additional of specialist policing support to improve our overall policing capability;
Enhancing our systems and procedures in key areas to improve our overall investigative techniques with a view to detecting more offences;
Enhancing the Scenes of Crime capability in the force to maximise the opportunities provided by forensic evidence in the detection of crime;
Making effective use of advances in science and technology to identify more offenders;
Maximizing the use of intelligence and covert policing methods to target all levels of criminality; and
Working alongside the Attorney Generals chambers to ensure that the law remains reflective of the crime environment.

Strategic Priority 3

To protect the Virgin Islands borders and to strengthen counter terrorism capability.

As well as delivering strong policing performance in the Territory, we will focus on cross border and international organized crime, recognising the negative impact these activities can have on the communities we serve and the Territory as a whole.

In addition, we must also recognize that no country or territory in the world is immune from the risks of a terrorist attack. We must therefore ensure we have the capacity and capability to prevent, detect and prepare for a terrorist treat or incident should the need ever arise.

We will deliver this priority by:

Appointing a senior officer with responsibility for cross border crime and counter terrorism;
Focusing on enhancements to the Marine Unit including providing additional resources and specialist support or training where required;
Working with Air Safety Support International (ASSI) to ensure the force’s air wing meets regulatory requirements and becomes fully operational within the force;
Close working with our partner agencies in the Territory to enhance border security and ports of entry;
Sharing specialist resources and intelligence with international law enforcement bodies to tackle serious and cross border crimes and to counter terrorist threats; and
Ensuring the police element of the overall disaster management plan is up to date and that disaster response plans are tested.

Strategic Priority 4

To create a dynamic workforce by attracting quality staff as well as improving the morale and motivation of existing staff.

To meet the challenges outlined in this plan we will focus heavily on the development of our workforce which remains the single most important factor in our organisations success. We must continue to recruit new and high quality candidates in the force as well as developing and retaining the skills and abilities of our existing staff. We must foster a culture of diversity, fairness and accountability while maintaining high standards of conduct and ethics.

We will deliver this priority by:

Ensuring our resource levels meet the demands facing the force;
Continuing to focus on improved performance through recruitment of high calibre staff. This will require us to seeking new methods of attracting candidates into the force whilst ensuring that the overall workforce reflects the communities it serves;
Developing and implementing a training plan based on a detailed assessment of the training needs of units and personnel within the force;
Rewarding and recognizing staff through performance appraisal, commendations and other appropriate techniques;
Developing succession planning to provide continuity in posts of a senior leadership or specialist nature; and
Continuing to develop extensive policies and procedures governing the effective administration of the force.

Strategic Priority 5

To maximise efficiency and improve service delivery

To effectively deliver on this plan we will ensure that the structures, systems and processes within the organisation are streamlined, efficient and directed towards improving service delivery. We will address the fundamental elements of how we operate.

We will deliver this priority by:

Reviewing the organizational structure and our establishment to ensure we are fully directed towards a modern, professional policing service.
Working with the Attorney Generals Office on a revised Police Act which will govern the modernisation of the force;
Developing a professional Business Support Directorate to provide effective and efficient management of resources focusing on people, finance, IT, estates and vehicles;
Developing an Estates Plan to ensure the facilities of the force are aligned to our community objectives and match the operational needs;
Exploiting new technology to improve communications within the force and to support the accurate and timely deployment of our resources. This will include the use of CCTV, Automated Number Plate Recognition and a Control Room to coordinate policing activities;
Reviewing areas of expenditure to ensure value for money and optimum efficiency is being attained;
Use performance and development reviews (PDRs) to drive Force and local performance by establishing clear links between an individual’s objectives and Force priorities; and
Identifying new methods of monitoring our quality of service within a new Service Charter.

Strategic Priority 6

To embed a culture of strategic planning and performance management within the RVIPF.

The development and subsequent monitoring of the delivery of this plan is a core strategic aim. The strategic plan provides an essential means of demonstrating leadership and direction; ensuring accountability and rewarding results.

We will deliver this priority by:

Undertaking environmental scanning identifying crime risks, political/ legislation changes and advances in international policing which fundamentally influence the planning process;
Developing annual business plans, underpinning the strategic plan, prioritising actions and assigning accountable officers to the delivery of those actions;
Developing a monitoring and reporting mechanism to ensure progress against the business plan feature as a core element of a dedicated monthly SMT; and
Embedding a performance culture within the force where key performance areas are monitored and targets developed to direct efforts towards tangible improvements in our crime fighting responsibilities.