Commissioner of Police (COP), Paul Farquharson revealed the depth of the problem and said that a protection programme needs to be urgently implemented, in a bid to crackdown on witness tampering. “We have to do it almost immediately because witnesses are being threatened and killed off now,” Mr Farquharson said. “We can’t wait, we have to press on with the programme.” He added that witness tampering is a problem that affects countries all over the world, adding that The Bahamas is no exception.
The COP is in talks with Lieutenant Colonel (Col) Colvin, Bishop of Trinidad, who is “sharing the experience” of that country’s witness protection programme. Mr Farquharson added that as Col Bishop passes on information from Trinidad’s nine-year programme, he hopes to look at their pitfalls and mistakes, find ways to avoid them and create a programme that can be introduced to The Bahamas. He added that they will also be assessing similar programmes in Jamaica, The U.S, Canada and other countries.
“We have to think about the criminal climate not only of The Bahamas, but also of the region and the world,” Mr Farquharson said. “Criminals will continue to challenge the criminal justice system and us as a country,” he said. “Especially hardened criminals, the drug traffickers, murderers, they will try and do all they can to ensure their cases will fail in court. And therefore, people who are witnesses of the state, must be protected at all costs.”
The COP also admitted that right now, the force does not have a programme in place to combat witness tampering, but said they are operating an informal and impromptu protection programme. He added that a proper witness protection programme is vital, as officers predict that the problem will soon spiral out of control.
“We know we’re going to have the challenges in the future,” said Mr Farquharson.
The Justice Protection Act will lay the framework for the laws to be in place, in order to legally introduce a structure for the witness protection programme. He added that the Act is apart of the foundation to introduce the programme, because laws must be in place in order to launch the system and determine the consequences for criminals who intimidate witnesses. Mr Farquharson said while our crime problem is not as widespread as that of other Caribbean countries, The Bahamas should still plan and prepare.
By: IANTHIA SMITH, The Nassau Guardian
