The 40th annual Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police Conference (PICP) Conference was held in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) on 23-25 August 2011.
At the opening ceremony Deputy Commissioner Andrew Colvin of the Australian Federal Police handed the PICP Chair to Chief of FSM National Police Mr Takasy Reim.
Mr Reim noted that the 40th anniversary of the PICP was a history making event for the FSM as this was to be the first time the nation held the position of chair and the first time the conference had been held in FSM.
Mr. Colvin said he was exceptionally pleased with the developments over the past year.
“We have met our goals in the past year and I am delighted that the Federated States of Micronesia has accepted the challenge of Chair of the PICP. I know that under the chairmanship of Chief Takasy Reim, we will continue to achieve our goals in Law Enforcement to build safer communities in the Pacific region.
“We are committed to working together and providing support to projects that we see as priorities in the Region” Mr. Colvin said.
During the conference the Chiefs of Police discussed range of issues impacting on Law Enforcement and Security within the Pacific Region. Their discussions focused on better coordinated and more targeted use of donor resources, identifying gaps in services and providing transparency, urban drift and a range of projects already underway in the Region.
One such area of discussion will focus on Police Training and Education under Pacific Police Training Advisory Group. The intention in establishing the forum is to support and oversee the building of sustainable training capacities within individual Pacific Police organisations.
New projects such as Cyber Safety Pasifika were also discussed. The Cyber Safety program will be delivered Pacific wide and will aim at protecting communities, children, youth and other vulnerable people from the vulnerabilities and impact of cyber-crime.
In his welcoming address to the conference Chief Reim told the delegates that he was very honoured to take the chairmanship for the next year. He said there was a real need to continue developing the information sharing arrangements throughout the region to stay at the cutting edge of crime trends.
“The movement of people across our borders is increasing daily. For us as PICP law enforcement leaders this poses an increasing challenge. We need to continuously improve our information sharing across our borders. This, I believe, will be of increasing importance to us in the future. We already have the tools to do this through the Pacific Transnational Crime Network (PTCN).
“During my term, I will focus my efforts on your behalf to work closely with the PTCN. We need to build on already developed systems to ensure our information gathering and sharing develops” Chief Reim said.
The conference concluded on Thursday 25 August 2011. The 2012 conference is scheduled to be held in Solomon Islands.
