fp Turks and Caicos

Two veteran members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were expected to arrive this week to take over command of the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force for two years, His Excellency the Gov. Gordon Wetherell said.

After several weeks of familiarisation and briefing, Colin Farquhar will assume full duties of commissioner of police, succeeding  Commissioner Edward Hall. Brad Sullivan will succeed Deputy Commissioner Hubert Hughes.

Hall and Hughes will soon go on pre-retirement leave, using up their accrued leave prior to retirement. The governor thanked Hall and Hughes for their years of distinguished service.

The governor said the two-year arrangement is aimed at making needed reforms to the police force and provide training and experience that officers will need to succeed to command positions.

The project is funded by Canada’s Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada’s Anti-Crime Capacity Building Program (ACCBP), which was announced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in August 2009.

The ACCBP provides funding and technical assistance to combat transnational crime in the areas of drug trafficking, corruption, human trafficking and migrant smuggling, money laundering, proceeds of crime, security-sector reform and crime prevention.

The governor reached the agreement in December with the Honourable Peter Kent, Canadian Minister of State of Foreign Affairs (Americas).

The assignments are also aimed at helping build security-sector capacity that directly benefits Canadians and the Caribbean region as a whole, Kent said.

Immediately prior to taking up this appointment Farquhar was the Police Advisor at the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations in New York. His international policing experience also includes serving as the Deputy Police Commissioner for Operations and Monitoring with the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, where he was responsible for the oversight and daily management of approximately 1,500 United Nations police officers from 44 different countries.

Sullivan has 33 years of policing experience in the RCMP, most recently with the Halifax District RCMP in Nova Scotia where he was responsible for the day to day operations of the Integrated Criminal Investigation Division, managing 140 personnel in numerous units including homicide, sexual assault, fraud, drugs and a criminal analysts section.

The TCI police force has 257 budgeted positions, Hall said in November, but only 237 were filled at that time. Sixteen cadets were in training and expected to graduate in December and February.

The new appointments are the latest step by the interim government to beef up the police force in the face of increasing crime.

In April the police force budget was increased from $14 million to $18 million. Four U.K. officers joined the force full-time in June.

In November, Scotland Yard sent five veteran officers for about a month  to help solve serious crimes and to assess needs of the force as “a first step” in assistance from the U.K. through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the governor said.

Click here to read the CVs of the new commissioners