Special police training for World Cup

Law enforcement officers in the Caribbean will be getting specialised training in customer relations as they prepare to provide service to fans for the 2007 World Cup (CWC).

Glen Roach, chairman of the security arm for the Trinidad and Tobago local organising committee and a member of the security directorate for the CWC, said his force would be embarking on the "crucial" area early in the new year.

"Most of all, we need quality customer service training. The kind of training that brings the officer face to face with the fans. This will be crucial," Roach said.

He was speaking after the security directorate for the CWC, headed by John Collymore, held a series of closed-door meetings to examine all aspects of the security master plan - for local, regional, air, land and sea movement.

Roach, who is deputy commissioner of police in Trinidad and Tobago added: "We will have people coming from all over the world, from different walks of life, different backgrounds, different cultures, so when we send a message we must all send the same message - that friendly message: 'you are here to enjoy yourself and we are going to do everything to ensure that you enjoy yourself as long you comply with our rules and laws'."

Roach said he was comfortable with where the security schedule was ahead of the tournament which will run from March 5 to April 28.

"I am comfortable with where we are now. We still have six months to go and the things that we hope to achieve by say, February into March, can be achieved in six months. The hardest area will be the training (of law enforcement officers)," Roach said.

"But that area does not kick in until January. What we want to do before that, we are going to do some pre-training preparation, so we can train our people in the skills we would require for them to bring to us during what would be the biggest event ever in our side of the world."

On Trinidad and Tobago, Roach said work was progressing well and outlined the areas which would require special attention. The twin island republic will stage pre-tournament matches from March 5 to 9 and first round matches from March 15 to 25.

"To start with on the national scale we need more intelligence officers, more persons who can deal with bomb technicians, more of the people to search for drugs, and so on," he said.

"At the venues, we need to do more training of the security officers who will be working directly with the teams and interacting with the spectators. We need to ensure that they (officers) have a clear idea of the requirements for access control. The types of searches that need to be conducted and things along that line."