NYPD Commissioner Approves Agreement For VIPD Officers To Train At Police Academy In NYC

ST. CROIX — Governor Kenneth Mapp has confirmed that the youngest officers of the Virgin Islands Police Department can now be trained at the New York City Police Academy, after the NYPD Commissioner, William Bratton, approved an agreement sealing the partnership.

The governor revealed the news in an exclusive interview with The Consortium last Friday. However, he did not assign a date to the commencement of the program.

“We’re happy to have the NYPD as the mentor agency for VIPD, and we’re going to be doing a tremendous amount of cross-training and collaboration in bringing together and modernizing our law enforcement capacity in the territory,” said the governor.

It’s part of Mr. Mapp’s strategy to improve the police department’s standing. He mentioned a VIPD assessment that was conducted in 2015, and made known that the results thereof will be revealed during his second State of the Territory Address later this month.

The governor also said that a partnership between the University of the Virgin Islands and John Jay College of Criminal Justice was being formalized that would “open up and restart at UVI the curriculum for criminal justice administration, and police science courses,” which would speed up the recruitment process. According to the governor, there are “tremendous vacancies” at the VIPD and Bureau of Corrections waiting to be filled.

As for progress on the longstanding federal oversight of the VIPD, the territory’s leader said, “For the first time from since we’ve been under the consent degree, Judge Curtis V. Gomez commended Police Commissioner Richards and the team at the VIPD for making tremendous progress just in [2015] on the issues under the consent decree.”

And on improvements at the Bureau of Corrections, the governor said Judge Wilma Lewis commended Director Rick Mulgrav for progress made, noting a 21-year federal consent decree that still remains.

“These kinds of works and efforts and collaborations are gong to bore the territory tremendous results as we move forward to the future,” Mr.  Mapp concluded.