ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, Mar 3, CMC – Antigua and Barbuda police commissioner, Atlee Rodney, will take up the position of the deputy director of the Barbados-based Regional Security System (RSS), Attorney General, Steadroy “Cuttie” Benjamin has confirmed.
He sad that both Prime Minister Gaston Browne and himself have encouraged Rodney t ake up the position, highlighting its significance for the top cop and the country.
Benjamin said that as Rodney prepares for pre-retirement leave, plans are underway to appoint his successor.
He said Rodney had visited his office last Thursday to report he had been offered the “very senior post” and sought guidance on whether to accept it.
“Having discussed the very attractive terms of the position and the fact that an Antiguan and Barbudan would, for the first time, occupy such a senior position, I recommended that he accepts the offer,” Benjamin said, adding that he had immediately contacted Prime Minister Browne, and together they expressed full support for the commissioner’s professional move.
Benjamin said that the appointment “would ensure to the benefit of security in the region and would reflect the high regard in which our country is held regionally in matters of national security”.
The RSS was created out of a need for a collective response to security threats, which were impacting on the stability of the region in the early 1970’s and 1980’s. In October 1982, four members of the Organisation of the Eastern Caribbean States, namely, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, signed a Memorandum
St. Kitts and Nevis joined after gaining independence in September 1983 and Grenada in January 1985. The MOU was updated in 1992 and the RSS acquired juridical status in March 1996 by way of the Treaty which was signed in St. Georges, Grenada.
Guyana is the latest Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country to join the RSS in September 2022.
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