Members of Parliament yesterday debated a bill intended to usher in key reforms of the police force, including a name change for the organisation, improved benefits for officers, more accountability, and other changes geared a creating a service-based operation.
If passed by both houses of parliament, the Police Service Act (2006) would mean that the Royal Bahamas Police Force would become the Royal Bahamas Police Service.
“The modern police department must be characterized by its emphasis on service, openness, transparency and accountability to the Bahamian people,” said Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia Pratt, who is also the minister of national security.
She said the draft legislation was all about “prescriptions to improve the openness, transparency, and accountability of the police department to enable it to better discharge its mandate.”
Minister Pratt further explained that the name change would be more than symbolic.
“It embodies the fundamental cultural shift of the organization’s objective to provide a service to the Bahamian people without invocation of fear, or force or authority,” she said. “‘Force’ is decidedly a colonialistic construction. In our modern democracy, the consent of the governed is paramount.”
It’s why, she said, the bill would provide for the establishment of panels of lay visitors to visit and examine detained persons. The bill also mandates that every police officer must provide all “reasonable” and lawful assistance to such persons.
“The idea, Mr. Speaker, is to create a more open and accountable attitude by the service in the manner in which the service treats detained persons,” Minister Pratt said.
“Mr. Speaker, this has long been a concern by members of the public who routinely complain of mistreatment or the mistreatment of their family or friends while in police custody.
“The police should have nothing to hide while detaining persons and the lay visitors panels will go a long way in surging up public confidence in the system and also discouraging allegations of brutality at the hands of officers.”
If the bill is passed, the deputy commissioner shall be the internal inspector of the service, inspecting and reviewing each branch and division of the service.
The deputy prime minister indicated that he would be mandated to provide reports of his inspections to the commissioner.
She noted that both the inspection and review unit and the complaints and corruption branch have been in operation for some time and are “effective mechanisms in improving transparency and accountability” in the service.
The bill, the deputy prime minister noted, seeks to codify these best practices.
In addition to an internal inspector, an external inspector would also be appointed and will be paid from public funds.
Minister Pratt explained that the function of this person shall be to report to the minister on the efficiency and effectiveness of the management of the service.
“This is a novel provision,” she said. “It provides the minister with statutory authority to seek a non-police inspection of a matter affecting the service.”
Minister Pratt indicated that the external inspector would be mandated to provide an annual report to the minister, which she is required to lay before parliament.
The commissioner would also have to be more accountable under the new law.
The bill requires that the commissioner, on an annual basis, prepare a policing plan of the service’s priorities for the year, the financial and human resources expected to be viable and of the broad allocation of such resources.
“Strategic planning is critical in determining how best to allocate resources and built into the plan are specific performance indicators, by which the public can measure its effectives,” the deputy prime minister said.
She added that the bill is “very progressive” in respect of improved benefits and conditions of service for the police.
“The new act contains extensive financial provisions, including improved benefits for officers killed or injured in the line of duty,” Minister Pratt said.
The bill provides for improved pensions to be paid to dependents of officers killed in the line of duty. This includes an award of two years salary to dependents, which is separate from what the dependents will receive from the National Insurance Fund or the government’s insurance programme.
The bill also provides for officers injured in the course of employment a pension granted in lieu of gratuity. It also provides for compensation for permanent partial disablement and full pension for total disablement, the deputy prime minister noted.
Additionally, there would be state assistance in the provision of free education for the children of officers killed in the line of duty up to the tertiary education in the Bahamas and dependents of such officers would be entitled to free medical care at public health facilities.
The bill also provides that where an officer is killed in the execution of his duties, the state will pay his or her funeral expenses.
The deputy prime minister announced in the budget communication in May 2005 that the government was making provision for medical insurance for law enforcement officers.
But that has not yet become reality.
Minister Pratt said yesterday that the insurance initiative “will soon go to tender”
“It is regretted that the implementation of this programme has taken longer than expected,” she said.
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
