No: 56/26

Date: 3rd July 2026

Eleven RGP officers have successfully completed the first specialist Police Family Liaison Officer (FLO) programme to have been delivered in Gibraltar, with one officer additionally qualifying in the role of Family Liaison Coordinator to lead and manage the deployment of these specialist officers.

Previously, individual RGP officers would travel to the United Kingdom to complete the FLO course with UK Police Forces, resulting in higher costs and insufficient numbers of local officers trained in this specialised discipline.

The FLO Coordinator role is an equally critical one as it provides strategic oversight of family liaison activity deployed in support of major investigations, ensuring FLOs are effectively tasked, supported and debriefed throughout an operation. The FLC role is a capability the RGP has not previously had, and its introduction marks a significant step forward in how the RGP will manage future responses to serious incidents.

Delivering the training was Steve Davies, a UK and internationally recognised expert in Family Liaison with over a decade of experience as a Major Crime Senior Investigating Officer, serving as Regional Family Liaison Lead for the UK’s South-West region, and contributing directly to the UK’s current Authorised Professional Practice (APP) guidance for Family Liaison.

The training delivered locally covered a wide range of topics, including the principles and ethics of family liaison, managing families during complex and protracted investigations, information flow between families and the investigation team, the welfare of both families and deployed officers, and on deploying in a Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) capacity.

The training represents a significant milestone for the RGP and is a meaningful investment aimed at ensuring that any Gibraltar family affected by the most serious of incidents receive the highest standards of dedicated specialist support.