Cook Islands Police Service has revitalised the ‘Train the Trainers’ Course, which was stopped in 2018, with the goal of enhancing local abilities.

Thirteen officers are part of the two-week course that started on Monday.

The training will help them qualify to become Trainers under the newly-established Officer Safety Pacific (OSP) programme.  

All previous certifications from this training as of 2018, have expired and hadn’t been renewed by the Australian Academy of Arts.

Acting Commissioner Aka Matapo said that this training was conducted pre-Covid and was stopped due to unforeseen reasons.

He said revitalising it with the help from the New Zealand police is anticipated as a great step to boost local abilities.

“This is bringing back the levels of, like, tick of the box, we are all capable and being trained in deploying with our tactical options, what we wear in our belt, our battered handcuffs, our spray, our empty hand tactics,” he said.

“So, it gives them the legislation to be safe that if they believe someone is a threat and you need to defend yourself or defend someone else, you are now governed or you're now lawfully able to use force because there's been a little bit of a gap in between times.

“'Our force is just under 100, and there's still a lot of vacancies that we haven't been able to (fill) and we're looking at recruiting more staff. It's a little longer process that we need to go through, just to make sure that everything goes smoothly.”

Asked whether police will be looking at revamping their whole building in order to attract more recruits to help boost police capabilities in fighting crime, Matapo said that is another priority.

“We need to look at our priorities first in terms of training,” he said.

One of the two trainers from the New Zealand police who will be training the local trainers, Cole Lemalu, said the goal is for the course to be successful especially to uplift and create an environment where local officers are happy with the skills, knowledge and experience that is found in New Zealand.

This is through the use of force, tactical training environment, but also knowing how to articulate and justify all functions, whether it's using tactical communication, or using any appointments that are given in the role of a police officer.

“Success to me is having them comfortable, happy, and basically able to use the tools that we are given in a positive manner in terms of our community response,” he said.

With 20 years in the job in New Zealand and 10 years training, it is Lemalu’s goal to boost the level of imparting knowledge to local officers through this training.

“Also being able to find the gaps within our teams to be able to uplift, consolidate, give them the confidence that when they go out to a job, they have that confidence because it's an ever-changing environment out there. Society has changed, the world has changed, technology has changed, and we've got to change with that.”

During the June Parliament sitting, Brown said police would focus on policing matters while the Ministry of Finance and Economic Management (MFEM) managed their finances to improve budget management and staff retention.

Police were allocated $6,288,983 in the 2024/25 Budget.

Brown said the staffing issues at police and other government agencies could be attributed to finance and finance management. He said the government recognised that the retention of staff had been a challenge, not just in the police, but in some key ministries as well.

Meanwhile, the 13 trainers will be certified after two weeks if they pass the course and it is the police’s hope that reintroducing the course will be a great start to better days for the police force amid recruiting challenges.