Prime Minister Mark Brown has met with the acting Police Commissioner Aka Matapo to discuss preparations on the new training initiatives in partnership with New Zealand Police.

The training needs of the Cook Islands Police Service have emerged as a growing concern for the organisation as staffing and budget constraints have increasingly impacted the officers’ ability to respond effectively and perform their duties, police said in a statement.

Police strategic and media advisor Trevor Pitt said that in light of those constraints, they have partnered with New Zealand Police to initiate a programme that strengthens the safety of officers in order to ensure the safety of the community.

Pitt said that over a two-week period, police at the senior sergeant level will be part of a training programme to better equip and enable them in dealing with all levels of incidents, including violent offender confrontations.

“The Police leadership wants to ensure that staff can effectively undertake their duties in a manner that enhances the safety of officers, the public, and offenders,” Pitt said.

“The programme, Officer Safety Pacific (OSP), is a system-based approach that maps out a framework of tactical options (TOF) in how to respond under certain situations.

“The TOF is a training and operational guidance tool that assists police to appropriately decide when, how and at what level to use a tactical option,” he added.

The Cook Islands Police have complained of being understaffed and under-resourced. In May this year, the police force was reportedly understaffed by 30-40 officers.

During the Parliament sitting in June, Cook Islands United Party leader Teariki Heather told PM Brown, who is also the Police Minister, that the people were concerned as the country faced a major issue.

Heather said: “Thieves are rampant in the Arorangi and town areas, and there has been an increase in accidents. Therefore, I would like to ask the Prime Minister what measures the government plans to take to address this problem. The safety of our people is at risk, not only on the roads but also in their homes and businesses. This problem is escalating, and we need swift action.”

PM Brown replied: “The request is going to the Police to have more of a presence on the roads to apprehend these hooligan drivers, to deter them from doing what they are doing and also to work with businesses that are being targeted by the thieves to find ways to try and reduce and eliminate this occurrence that we are seeing happening in our country.”

“There seems to be a thinking that this type of behaviour that we are seeing is being brought in from outside, from people coming from New Zealand and Australia, Cook Islanders who are carrying out this activity here in our country.”

Brown had also called on the police department to strengthen its policing capability and strengthen its policing presence in the community to deter these criminal actions.

The New Zealand Police training programme starts on Monday with two NZ police officers conducting the training. Two other NZ officers have been here this week for training preparations.

The first two rounds will be for senior staff, divided into two groups over two weeks. The first session will have 11 participants, and the second will have 13.