The Prosecution Department of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) is coordinating an attachment programme which will benefit Police Prosecution Officers in the Provinces that do not have a resident Magistrate.
“The attachment programme is an ongoing one and it involves practical training with the Police Prosecution Department here in Honiara so those police prosecution officers in the provinces can prepare themselves for when a court circuit goes to them or when a resident magistrate is posted to their province,” says Director of Police Prosecution Department, Chief Superintendent John Rove.
Chief Superintendent Rove explains: “It is important that the provincial police prosecution officers undergo practical training as they are given the opportunity to undertake real cases to get that valuable experience which you cannot from an ordinary training course.”
He adds: “At the moment we have the Police Prosecution Officer at the Lata Police Station here with us at the Prosecution Department for the six weeks attachment program.”
Police Prosecutor at the Lata Police Station Constable Smith Abuo says, “The attachment programme is very valuable as I am dealing with real cases under the supervision of one of my colleagues from the Prosecution Department here in Honiara.”
“As we do not yet have a resident Magistrate in Lata, we are not exposed as frequently as I should to prosecuting cases because like any other tasks we can only get better with more experience. We only get the experience when a court circuit comes around and that does not happen frequently during the course of a year,” says Constable Abuo.
It is expected the police prosecutor from another province will join the attachment programme when Constable Abuo concludes his attachment in June 2018.