Two Saint Lucia police officers complete maritime security training in the United States

Two senior officers from the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force have returned from specialised training in the United States designed to sharpen the island's ability to police its waters, a development with direct relevance to the safety of the coastal areas that draw so many visitors each year.

As reported by St. Lucia Times, Assistant Superintendent of Police Reece Auguste and Sergeant 271 Shawn Delice recently finished a five-day maritime security policy course in Norfolk, Virginia. The programme ran from September 21 to 25, 2026, and was delivered through the William J. Perry Centre for Hemispheric Defence Studies.

The Force said the syllabus covered maritime surveillance, threat assessment, maritime law enforcement and inter-agency cooperation, along with strategies for responding to dangers at sea. Participants also studied maritime domain awareness, the ability to monitor and understand what is happening in a country's waters, as well as strategic waterways, riverine security, maritime commerce and the detection of illicit activity at sea. Emerging security questions in the Arctic and Antarctic were also on the agenda, and the delegates engaged directly with representatives of the United States Navy and Coast Guard.

The course brought together 41 participants from 19 countries spanning the Caribbean, Central America and South America, giving the two Saint Lucian officers the chance to examine shared maritime challenges alongside counterparts from across the hemisphere.

For the Police Marine Unit, the RSLPF regards the knowledge as especially pertinent. The unit's duties include surveillance of the island's waters, fisheries enforcement, protecting coastal and marine resources, spotting unlawful maritime activity and securing ports and coastal stretches. The Force expects the training to bolster that work and to deepen cooperation with national, regional and international partners in the maritime security field.

Auguste and Delice are now expected to pass on what they learned to colleagues, applying it to improve the operational effectiveness of the Marine Unit and the wider maritime security effort of the Force.

The Royal Saint Lucia Police Force dates back to 1834 and carries responsibility for law enforcement across the island, which has no standing army. Alongside the Special Service Unit, its Coast Guard handles duties at sea, while wider defence is shared with neighbouring states through the Regional Security System, the Caribbean partnership of which Saint Lucia is a member. That structure makes external training opportunities of this kind an important way for the island to build capability in an area where it has no military of its own.

The news matters to visitors as much as to the security establishment. The island's economy leans heavily on its coastline, from the beaches in the north to the dramatic shores beneath the Pitons in Soufrière, and the waters around it sustain diving in St Lucia, sailing, fishing and the ports that welcome cruise ships. A Marine Unit better equipped to monitor and respond to threats at sea underpins the sense of security that holidaymakers and the tourism trade depend on, and the authorities have long placed officers in tourist areas and on the beaches to keep visitors reassured.

It is also a practical matter for anyone weighing up the island as a destination. Whether travellers are booking hotels in St Lucia for a winter escape, comparing all-inclusive resorts in St Lucia for a family trip or browsing villas in St Lucia for a longer stay, confidence in coastal policing shapes how safely they can move between the island's bays and towns. The same applies to couples arranging a honeymoon in St Lucia or a wedding, since many of those celebrations take place on or beside the water.

The Force has not announced a specific timetable for how the new knowledge will be rolled out beyond the two officers sharing it internally, but the expectation set out by the RSLPF is clear: the skills gained in Virginia should translate into a more capable Marine Unit and stronger collaboration with the regional and international partners who share responsibility for the waters around Saint Lucia.