The Government will pump $70 million into the Police Service to increase its fleet. The budget document, Stimulating Growth, Generating Prosperity: Public Sector Investment Programme 2013 to 2015, said the fleet of the Police Service will increase by approximately 200.
Among the vehicles expected to be bought are marked and unmarked sedans, marked sport utility vehicles, dog vans, two ambulances and two trucks.
"The vehicles will be 'fit for purpose' and custom-built to facilitate the continued standardisation of the fleet and to allow for improved mobility, as the vehicles will be sturdy enough for police use," the document said.
It said they would facilitate patrols, implementation of the transformation initiative, deploy canine services throughout the country, medical emergency response involving its officers and community policing.
In a bid to technologically upgrade the Police Service, information technology systems have been earmarked that are expected to provide the police with accessible, critical and reliable capability to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
Some of the projected activities include:
• Network cabling of police headquarters
• Network cabling of stations
• Expansion of police network
• Mobile computer system and licence-plate recognition
• Livescan (the technique and the technology used by law enforcement agencies to capture fingerprints and palm prints electronically)
The overall cost of the computerisation is expected to be $51 million, the document said.
It said the transformation of the Police Service would continue over the medium term (2013 to 2015) at an estimated cost of $50 million and included:
• The establishment of civilian staff structures which would perform roles traditionally carried out by police and/or public servants, resulting in public officers returning to the public service and allowing police to perform their functions
• Improving community relations with the establishment of facilities for new police youth clubs, a safe house for at-risk women and children, purchase of furniture, equipment and furnishings required by the Community Policing Secretariat to support police youth clubs
• Procurement of tools and equipment for the Armoury Management Unit to carry out its functions as mandated under the United Nations stockpile management approach to dealing with management of small arms and light weapons.