Call for DEM to play greater role in DEOs

A call is being made for the Department of Emergency Management (DEM) to play an even greater role in the functioning of daily operations of the 30 District Emergency Organisations (DEOs) across the island.

This is the opinion of the Executive Director of the Regional Security System (RSS), Commander Errington Shurland who delivered the feature speech at the St. James Central District Emergency Organisation Annual General Meeting on Sunday night at Queen’s College.

“There is a requirement for the Department of Emergency Management to pay more attention to the District Emergency Organisations because if you want to call upon them in times of emergency, you have to make sure that they are properly prepared to respond and I am not satisfied based on what I have observed, that enough attention is paid to those District Emergency Organisations.”

He stated that one of the areas that he would like to see them more active is in the area of training for personnel who volunteer their time for these organisations and as such, he asked for a unit to be established that would facilitate this training.

Shurland stated that the DEM could send one of their representatives periodically to check and see how the training is coming along or that they could have one of their officers conduct the training themselves. Other possible organisations that could provide such training are the armed forces in this island, he stated.

“The Department of Emergency Management has got to establish and maintain a unit that has primary responsibility for the District Emergency Organisations – their training. Of course, they could send an officer to see how the training is going or organise that training and we can call on the Royal Barbados Police Force, the Barbados Fire Service, the Barbados Defence Force, the Barbados Red Cross and the Roving Response Team.”

The Executive Director of the RSS stated that doing such would help to ensure that the other 11 DEOs which are currently not as active as they should be, could be provided with the resources to get back on track.

“Issues relating to identification badges, certification, the structure. Those are areas where the Department of Emergency Management must pay attention to in order to ensure that not only St. James Central – because St. James Central seems to be doing pretty well – but what about those 11 who can’t come up to scratch, who can’t come up to the mark? That means that architecture in Barbados has a gap, but there ought not to be any such gaps.”