RSIPF rebut an article published in Solomon Star newspaper with a title “Police expose the rorts within”

The Royal Solomon Island Police Force (RSIPF) rebutted an article published in Solomon Star newspaper this week with the title “Police expose the rorts within” as totally misleading and nonsense.

The RSIPF Executive members travelling with the RSIPF trainees to China was part of the initial plan and consensus made by the Commissioner of RSIPF and the People's Republic of China, Ministry of Public Security.

The participation of the RSIPF Executive in this training seminar was a decision made in the strategic interest of this law enforcement cooperation. Because this was the first training seminar in China, the RSIPF Executive have decided for Executive Leadership group to lead the RSIPF delegation in order to provide strategic guidance & direction, qualitative assessment and report to the RSIPF Executive and the Solomon Islands government, especially the Ministry of Police, National Security and Correctional Services.

RSIPF Executive members will continue to lead future training seminars in China and that arrangement will not change.

RSIPF is a discipline organization that operates under the context of the Command and Control system of authority. RSIPF Executives who form part of this delegation are the designated Supervisors and Commanders of these trainees and therefore necessary to accompany their members to provide authority and direction in order for the training to be successfully achieved.

These RSIPF Executive members also had their specific trainings whilst in China on strategic and operational policing dynamic subjects including, large scale event security planning, onsite command security, teaching and training methods of police operations, observe and experience the tactical trainings received by RSIPF trainees, sharing policing experiences, analyse and evaluate best practices, involved in high level meetings with leaders of the host country on matters of law enforcement cooperation, etc.

RSIPF Executives are police officers and have high level responsibility to make different levels of decision making in every type of crisis and emergency situations and therefore necessary to undertake capacity development training to better understand best practices, high impact scenarios and the context of evolving and complex security challenges of today.

Assistant Commissioner (AC) Evelyn THUGEA National Operations is the RSIPF lead planner for the Pacific Game 23 security operation and her participation in this training is vital and relevant. She is now in a better position after attending this training seminar to review and develop a comprehensive security plan for the PG23. To make it clear she is not the AC Corporate Support of RSIPF as mentioned in the article published by Solomon Star newspaper.

RSIPF trainees travelling to China have acknowledged and appreciated the outstanding leadership provided by the RSIPF Executives during this training. This high level and advanced training in China is very beneficial as it will reform the RSIPF practices and well equipped these officers with comprehensive skills and knowledge that will make them more efficient and effective when discharging their duties. To say that officers received the same training previously received in Honiara is a gross misleading statement. This statement could only be made by someone who knows nothing about this training or has a very poor intellect.

The rest of other issues raised in the article are nonsense and have no merit that requires further explanation.

The RSIPF Executive is open and transparent and advises its members to raise issues through RSIPF internal channels other than using media.

RSIPF is also calling on journalists to always practice ethical Journalism and strive to ensure free exchange of information that is accurate, fair, balanced and thorough where Journalists act with integrity.

RSIPF also appeals to the Media Association of Solomon Islands (MASI) to ensure its members verify facts with the Police Media Unit instead of using unnamed sources. This is only confusing the public and a display of unprofessional reporting.