Saint Helena Police Service

The Saint Helena Police Service is the local police force for the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, consisting of the South Atlantic islands of Saint Helena, Ascension and the island group of Tristan da Cunha.

Saint Helena Police Service
SHPS patch
Flag of Saint Helena
AbbreviationSHPS
MottoProtecting and serving our community
Jurisdictional structure
Operations jurisdictionSaint Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha
Map of Saint Helena Police Service's jurisdiction
Size420 km²
Population5,661
Operational structure
HeadquartersColeman House, Jamestown, Saint Helena
Facilities
Stations1
Website
sainthelena.gov.sh/directorates/police/

The Saint Helena Police Service is part of the Saint Helena Police Directorate which also includes the Fire and Rescue Service, Her Majesty's Prison Jamestown, the Immigration Office and the Sea Rescue Service.[1]

Staffing and resources

The service has a staff of 63 on the most populous island of St Helena,[2] with a detachment of five on Ascension Island. Policing in Tristan da Cunha is undertaken by one full-time police inspector and three special constables. The current Tristan da Cunha inspector is Inspector Conrad Glass.[3]

Saint Helena has one police station, Coleman House, named after PC Leonard John Coleman who died in the line of duty on 2 December 1982.[4] The Island's only prison - HMP Jamestown - was built in 1827 and in 2018.

Constables

Officers of the SHPS are known as Constables, as is typical with British police organisations. The Constables are a mixture of UK, South African and local nationals.[5] They do receive a certain amount of uniform and equipment from the UK. In 2014, they received some uniform from Sussex Police, from Sussex in the United Kingdom.[6]

Officer deaths on duty
  • PC Leonard John Coleman was killed while attending a domestic incident on 2 December 1982.[7][8]

HMP Jamestown

Established in 1826 HMP Jamestown provides accommodation for convicted and remanded prisoners and also provides a police custody facility for arrested persons. HMP Jamestown is a Category B prison holding adult male and female prisoners and young offenders, both convicted and those currently on remand by the courts.[9]

While prison services on St. Helena adhere to the same high standards as other facilities in the UK, HMP Jamestown cannot fulfill this requirements in some aspects, mainly due to the old building offering only limited space. It was criticised that the building did not offer modern (or hardly any at all) fire protection and is not barrier-free, making access for visiting wheelchair users impossible. The cells are overcrowded, not properly ventilated and do not allow sunlight to reach the inmates. There are no sanitation facilities in the cells and prisoners have to use common facilities that are not up to modern standards.

These problems are well known as HMP Jamestown had been declared unfit for further use already in 1850. Since that time, many suggestions had been made to build a more suitable prison and relocate the old facility, the last plan was for doing so in 2017. However, none of these plans have been followed up properly and today the same facilities, that have been declared unsuitable in 1850, are still being used in an rather improvised way.[10] Recent structural updates to improve the prisons fire safety might indicate that the relocation of the prison is still not planned in the near future.[11]

The prison was widely condemned and deemed to be "unfit for purpose" following an Inquiry by The Equality & Human Rights Commission.[12]

Immigration office

This is the Office in charge of all border control at the Sea & Air Port, passport issuing and nationality matters and is composed of:[13]

  • Chief Immigration Officer
  • Three Senior Immigration Officers
  • Four Immigration Officers

See also

References
  1. "Police Directorate". 27 May 2021.
  2. "The Police Department". St Helena Government. Archived from the original on 5 August 2011. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  3. Crossan, Rob (13 January 2010). "The world's loneliest police beat". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 23 June 2014. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  4. "SERVICE OF REMEMBRANCE - POLICE CONSTABLE LEONARD COLEMAN". St Helena Government. 28 November 2017. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  5. "St Helena Police".
  6. "Donation of Uniform to St Helena Police". 8 September 2014.
  7. "Safety, Security and Home Affairs Portfolio on Facebook". Facebook. Archived from the original on 30 April 2022.
  8. "Safety, Security and Home Affairs Portfolio on Facebook". Facebook. Archived from the original on 30 April 2022.
  9. "HM Prison". St Helena Government. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  10. http://humanrightssthelena.org/prisonreportfinal.pdf
  11. "HM Prison Meets Fire Safety Requirements". 11 June 2020.
  12. http://humanrightssthelena.org/prisonreportfinal.pdf
  13. "Immigration Office".

Sources
  1. World Police Encyclopedia, ed. by Dilip K. Das & Michael Palmiotto published by Taylor & Francis, 2004.
  2. World Encyclopedia of Police Forces and Correctional Systems, second edition, Gale, 2006.
  3. Sullivan, Larry E. Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2005.
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