New Anse aux Pins police station more work conducive and community-friendly |28 July 2017

The new Anse aux Pins police station has been described as more work conducive and community-friendly.

Equipped with modern amenities, the new station which was inaugurated yesterday will serve the communities of Anse aux Pins, Cascade, Pointe Larue and Au Cap.

It was the Commissioner of Police Reginald Elizabeth and Designated Minister Macsuzy Mondon, who also holds the ministerial portfolio for Home Affairs, who had the honour of unveiling the commemorative plaque to officially open the station.

They were later guided on a tour of the building to inspect the facilities.

Gracing the event with her presence was Mitcy Larue, Minister for Youth, Sports and Culture who was formerly responsible for the home affairs ministry under which the police falls.

The new Anse aux Pins police station is managed by Inspector Vincent Marie as the station commander, who has been in that position for two and a half years now.

Also present were the members of the National Assembly for Anse aux Pins, Pointe Larue and Au Cap -- Clifford Andre, Jude Valmont and Steven Pillay respectively -- and other high officials of the Seychelles Police Force.

Father Lonnie Adrienne of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Seychelles and Father Danny Elizabeth of the Anglican Church of Seychelles were there to bless the building.

A flag raising ceremony also formed part of the event.

“Police officers at this station are now being provided with the means to operate in a more suitable and conducive environment which will no doubt enhance a more professional performance and service delivery for the communities it serves,” said Compol Elizabeth in his opening speech, while urging the officers stationed there to give their very best.

In doing so, he said, they will earn the respect of the public.

“Work hard to achieve the police vision, mission, values and ethics in striving to make your communities and Seychelles a safer place. May you continue to improve response time to complainants and incidents and increase police visibility,” he urged the police officers.

Mr Elizabeth commended the station commander for good services despite constraints in their working environment.

He also advised them to strive to maintain a high level of performance and team spirit which he said are conducive for the successful functioning of the station.

“Always strive for excellent working relations and communications with the public to build a partnership based on mutual respect, friendship, trust and understanding. Let this station be a place where everyone will feel welcome and always at ease,” he said.

Inspector Marie said as the commander of the Anse aux Pins police station for two and a half years, this new facility will allow them to have all their services under one roof. Before he and his colleagues had to work in difficult and non-conducive environments. But they also have success stories to tell.

“Nonetheless this did not prevent us from giving our best in our policing duties as we were able to reduce crimes in our policing jurisdiction by 41%. And last year also we increased pro-active policing crimes by 97%,” he said. With this new facility, he said, they will better serve the community, motivate his officers and improve policing in the district.

Elaborating more on pro-active crimes, Station Commander Marie explains when the police compiled their crime statistics in 2016 they categorised two types of crimes – the re-active crimes and the pro-active crimes where police go out and detect offences like people consuming alcohol by roadsides etc…

“For re-active cases when we were given our targets as a station, we were able to reduce crimes by 41% for 2016. And for police generated-cases (pro-active crimes) we increased that number by 97%,” he explained.

New services which will now be offered by the station are criminal investigations where the service was at Pointe Larue before; traffic investigations which was based at Anse Royale; people from the district who need feedbacks from their cases will now come to Anse aux Pins and apart from comfort for our officers, the station will also provide this service to the community.

“Now we have an interview room. If anyone has any query or they want to report a crime, they now have a comfortable sitting area to sit and report their case,” he said.

Other amenities at the station include computer room; head of CID room; secretary’s office; station commander’s office; meeting room; interview room; three cells which can hold 5 persons and a recreational area on the top floor.

Guests viewing the facilities at the new station