Marshall Islands Justice Minister David Kramer confirmed Wednesday that he and Police Commissioner George Lanwi are working with an Australian-funded regional police training program to hold the academy for the national police force as well as officers who work for the 24 local governments in the country.
The aim is to hold the academy in June, he said.
The training is being organized with the Pacific Police Development Program that comes under the Australian Federal Police. Kramer said the hope is to also involve police instructors from police forces in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, both U.S.-affiliated islands like the Marshall Islands.
A small group of police officers have already been in training with Australian police instructors to prepare them as trainers, according to a regional training officer.
“The preparation and development of instructors from your organization was an important step with their deployment to Pohnpei during November 2008,” said Jim Thompson, Training Capacity Adviser for the Pacific Police Development Program who is based in Australia, earlier this week.
In the 1980s, the U.S. government funded police academies on an annual basis in the Micronesian area that involved Marshall Islands police. But officials said this is the first ever to be sponsored by the Marshall Islands government and held in Majuro.
