The Department of Public Safety\u2019s men and women have been neglected for so long, according to DPS commissioner Rebecca Warfield.<\/p>\n
Warfield disclosed that some of the police officers haven\u2019t had training since their academy.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor some, that\u2019s 20 years. For some people, that\u2019s eight years. So that\u2019s a tremendous challenge as well,\u201d said the commissioner during Wednesday\u2019s meeting of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n
Instead of paying $10,000 to send one person for off-island training, DPS can conduct training in the Commonwealth, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are cash-strapped. I\u2019m sure your businesses are suffering just like the government coffers are suffering, just like DPS is suffering. But it is a matter of maximizing resources,\u201d Warfield pointed out.<\/p>\n
With respect to training, there are resources available on the island, she said.<\/p>\n
The commissioner said if there are people who have specialized skills in the department they can conduct training.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce we make that kind of investment\u2014a $10,000 investment in an individual to go off-island for training\u2014they need to bring that back to the department. And they need to have an opportunity to let the rest of the men and women know what they know,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Warfield said DPS now conducts different trainings every month.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne month was domestic violence. The next training was officer\u2019s survival, because sometimes our officers panic out there. Sometimes they get hurt, they\u2019re always in dangerour situations,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Even though officers can anticipate what someone might do, Warfield said, they need to feel confident in their responses to those individuals.<\/p>\n
DPS will also conduct ethics and dignity training next week.<\/p>\n
She underscored the importance of such ethics and dignity training considering that there is an issue of self-esteem within the department.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey know how people look down on them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Warfield, however, said she believes that DPS personnel should be treated like professionals if people want them to behave like professionals.<\/p>\n
She said there will also anger management training and drug awareness.<\/p>\n
\u201cLiterally ever month, we\u2019re working to better ourselves so that we can provide a better service to you,\u201d the commissioner added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Department of Public Safety\u2019s men and women have been neglected for so long, according to DPS commissioner Rebecca Warfield.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105954\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}