Two Cook Islands Police officers are in Brisbane, Australia attending the Pacific Police Security Group (PPSG) training.

This is one of Cook Islands' commitment to a regional initiative to strengthen security in the Pacific.

Senior Constable Michael Auora and Constable Tikove Piira were recently selected to undergo the six-months training.

Police media and strategic advisor Trevor Pitt said the training falls under the Forum-endorsed Pacific Policing Initiative (PPI) - designed to provide critical operational support to a member country, in security-related needs.

He said the trained PPSG Officers from Pacific Police services could be quickly deployed in response to major events to support national capabilities.

The events may include occasions such as Leaders' meetings, regional games, national elections, or natural disasters.

Officers Auora and Piira are part of a 24-week training programme that will prepare them for any operational deployments in the region, when required, Pitt said.

Looking at their background, Pitt said Constable Piira joined the Police Service four years ago and Snr Constable Aurora has been in the police force for eight years.  

“The training and experience strengthens our own capabilities as well as sustaining an important commitment to regional policing priorities.  

“As we are all aware, our small organisation faces a range of constraints so these regional initiatives are taken quite seriously in terms of our capacity to manage such training.  

“The Cook Islands has an excellent record in terms of contributing to regional security efforts, including our maritime surveillance cooperation and the historic RAMSI initiative (and its forerunner: the International Peace Monitoring Team) - in which we provided 20 police officers over many years,” Pitt added. Police Media/ LL