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History making Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police Conference starts in Pohnpei

Palikir, Pohnpei (FSM Information Services): August 25, 2011 - The 40^th annual Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police Conference started in a blaze of colour and cultural ceremony in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia on Monday night (22 August 2011). Participating countries were given a traditional welcome with cultural dances and music ahead of a week of intense deliberations.

The 40^th anniversary will go down as a landmark in International policing cooperation as well as a history making event for the Federated States of Micronesia as it will be the first time the FSM has held the position as chair and the first time the conference has been held in FSM.

During the conference the Chiefs of Police will discuss a range of issues impacting on Law Enforcement and Security within the Pacific Region. Their discussions will focus on better

coordinated and more targeted use of donor resources, identifying gaps in services and providing transparency, urban drift and a range of projects already underway in the Region.

One such area of discussion will focus on Police Training and Education under Pacific Police Training Advisory Group. The intention in establishing the forum is to support and oversee the building of sustainable training capacities within individual Pacific Police organisations.

New projects such as Cyber Safety Pacifika will also be discussed. The Cyber Safety project will be delivered Pacific wide and will aim at protecting communities, children, youth and other vulnerable people from the impact of cyber-crime.

In his welcoming address to the conference incoming Chair of the PICP, FSM's National Police Chief, Mr Takasy Reim welcomed to the table Chief of Pohnpei State Police Joseph Roby who represented the Chiefs of State Police from the four States of FSM.

Chief Reim told the delegates that he was very honoured to take the chairmanship for the next year. He said there was a real need to continue developing the information sharing arrangements throughout the region to stay at the cutting edge of crime trends.

"The movement of people across our borders is increasing daily. For us as PICP law enforcement leaders this poses an increasing challenge. We need to continuously improve our information sharing across our borders. This, I believe, will be of increasing importance to us in the future. We already have the tools to do this through the Pacific Transnational Crime Network (PTCN).

"During my term, I will focus my efforts on your behalf to work closely with the PTCN. We need to build on already developed systems to ensure our information gathering and sharing develops" Chief Reim said.

Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Andrew Colvin, acting on behalf of outgoing Chair, Commissioner Tony Negus said he was exceptionally pleased with the developments over the past year.

"We have met our goals in the past year and I am delighted that the Federated States of Micronesia has accepted the challenge of Chair of the PICP. I know that under the chairmanship of Chief Takasy Reim, we will continue to achieve our goals in Law Enforcement to build safer communities in the Pacific region.

"We are committed to working together and providing support to projects that we see as priorities in the Region" Mr. Colvin said.

The conference will continue until Thursday 25 August 2011.