Several weeks after Member of Parliament for High Rock Kenneth Russell claimed in the House of Assembly that some applicants with known criminal backgrounds have been allowed to join the police force, the deputy prime minister and minister of national security tabled a formal response yesterday, which also revealed that there is now a hold on new applications to join the force.
DPM Cynthia Pratt’s statement said that the commissioner of police has directed that no further applications will be taken until a backlog of applications has been eliminated.
That came in response to reports that the existence of a backlog of applicants for recruit training facilities has led to some applicants being favoured over others and being given preference by being admitted out-of-turn for recruit training.
The deputy commissioner of police, meanwhile, has been assigned to give personal supervision of the recruitment process.
She also reported that a police recruit enlisted on April 12, 2002 in Grand Bahama, and the vetting process revealed that he had received adverse reports from his former place of employment, but nothing criminal was found.
However, according to the DPM’s response, it was later found that this recruit in 1999 was charged before the court with stealing by reason of employment. According to Mrs. Pratt, he was given a conditional discharge and placed on a 12-month probation.
In 2004, this same recruit, by that time a police officer, became suspect for having stolen a cellular telephone, she reported, adding that he is presently awaiting a hearing before the Police Tribunal and has been interdicted from duty.
Another recruit enlisted in the Royal Bahamas Police Force in December 2002 and in January of this year, he was charged with unlawful sexual intercourse and has been interdicted from duty, Mrs. Pratt noted.
Responding to another claim, the response said that no officer who serves in the fire branch – or any other branch – has been arrested for housebreaking.
The report that a sergeant may have arrested a person and later asked to be allowed to change his report to facilitate the entry into the police force of an applicant is being investigated, the DPM informed, adding that this incident is not presently known to police.
Her formal response also said that police commissioner Paul Farquharson has spoken with Mr. Russell and was unable to discover as a result of that conversation any further facts to support his claim that persons with criminal records have been permitted entry to the police force.
Mr. Russell made his charges in the House of Assembly on February 24.
The Bahama Journal
