Plans to provide better accommodations for police officers are progressing smoothly, and Attorney General, Adriel Brathwaite, has indicated that more improvements will be coming next year.
Last Friday, the Minister told lawmen that plans were already in place to officially open the Cane Garden, St Thomas facility on January 3. “We are awaiting furniture and a few other minor touches. I am very proud of what we have built there,” he said, as he addressed the Barbados Police Association’s Annual General Meeting.
The BDS$13 million Cane Garden, St Thomas project falls under the wider BDS$67 million Citizens Security Facilities Project, and will feature a civic centre, comprising a new police station occupying 11 000 square feet of land, while the magistrates’ court will account for 6 000 square feet of land space.
Meanwhile, work at the Hastings/Worthing Station in Christ Church, which will be an amalgamation of the Hastings and Worthing Police Stations, is expected to be completed by May 2018, after experiencing a 10-week delay.
However, Brathwaite said officers of the Criminal Investigations Department were now happy at their new facility in the former Barbados Tourism Association Building on Fontabelle, St. Michael, while the Old Male Barracks at the Central Police Station was recently reopened. “We need about $250, 000 to properly equip the gym,” he said.
In addition, the Family Conflict Unit and the Truth Verification Unit of the Force began operations from the Black Rock, St Michael facility from June this year.
During his address, the Minister also disclosed that architectural drawings for a new police station and Magistrates’ Court at Boarded Hall, St George, and a new police station at Six Roads, St. Philip, were completed.
“The drawings we have … when we construct these facilities … would be better than what is at Cane Garden,” the Minister boasted. (BGIS)
