The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

AS he officially hands over the post of Police Commissioner to Clayton Fernander today, Paul Rolle says he’s proud of both the organisation and the achievements attained in his more than two years in the seat.

For some, his commissionership has been marked by criticisms regarding the conduct of officers - those with “warrior” mentalities as Mr Rolle once put it - and others who have found themselves on the wrong side of the law. The RBDF has also been in the spotlight over the frequency of police-involved shootings under Mr Rolle’s tenure. Last year, 21 police-involved shootings were recorded, 13 of which were fatal.

This newspaper has previously reported that The Bahamas has one of the highest per capita rates of police involved killings in the world, with 11 recorded in 2017, 2018 and 2020.

In other circles, there is the view that Mr Rolle’s administration has been defined by his handling of security measures at Grand Bahama and Abaco in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian.

However, more recently, there was the COVID-19 pandemic – he was appointed within two weeks of the first virus case in The Bahamas. He admitted last week that it was a confusing time as Emergency Powers Orders changed rapidly, and he received pushback over a $750,000 bill the force racked up for around-the-clock policing during the pandemic.

All things considered, the commissioner was adamant that he’s made inroads in several areas, including addressing the conduct of officers and how they are viewed by members of the public.

He also told The Tribune that crime had been on the decline under his watch.

“I am extremely pleased, and we have made some inroads. We are not there yet, but we are making progress,” Mr Rolle said.

“Crime is something that you always will have as long as you have developments, and you have targets, and you have willing offenders.”

On the crime front, he said: “When I came in 2020, at the end of 2020, we saw a 16 percent decrease in crime. In 2021 we maintained that same level below 2019. The numbers have not changed much.

“This despite all that was going on.”

He pointed to 279 illegal firearms seized in 2020 and 277 more confiscated in 2021.

He continued: “In 2020 murder was down, but murder is not the only crime. Last year we had a surge in homicides and so that was one of the only categories.

“All the others were down,” he said.

Mr Rolle went on to acknowledge challenges with tackling the issue of officers who break the law, but he said the public should avoid sweeping generalisations.

According to him, no other organisation in the country holds their officers to account like the RBPF.

“I would say to them then label the country. You can’t just label the force, no more than you can’t label the country from one fella who commits a crime.

“You have a fella that commits rape and then you say all Bahamian men are rapists. That’s a sweeping generalisation and it’s wrong.

“We hold our officers to account. Show me one other department in this country that holds their people to account and take that kind of swift action against them. You’ll see police officers when they do wrong, we put them before the court, or we take them before our discipline tribunal and we take the appropriate action against them.

“We don’t sanction officers doing wrong and that’s why when officers run afoul or break the law they are held to account.

“Integrity is a personal thing. I can’t have any integrity for officers. I have over 5,000 officers and they are all over the place. I can’t babysit them.

“So, if you don’t have the personal fortitude to stand up I can’t do that for you.”

“The Bahamian people who want to level that against the police need to understand they are your children, they’re your crooked children who you are calling crooked. They’re your crooked children who you sent to be police.

“So, who are you calling crooked? Yourself? That’s us. I am saying that unless you want me to go to space or to Mars and get some, but we must use our Bahamian sons and daughters to be police and that is why I say it is important before we jump to criticise that we jump to a partnership.”

Speaking about the force’s work in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian and later the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Rolle said his expertise was apparent in those instances.

“Most of my tenure as commissioner I would say certainly during that time I was there, my expertise was brought to bear and because of that it helped us to mitigate and navigate through Abaco. My experience, especially dealing with deaths and Dorian.

“Some persons, maybe my tenure may be defined by that because I had to deal with maybe a thousand deaths in the last two years not only the COVID deaths, but you had the murders and you had the other natural deaths and so that’s every day you are out there with officers dealing with the coroner and meeting with families. Then we had to also try and deal with the community and keep the community safe.”

However, the outgoing commissioner said he saw a window of opportunity to assist the public.

“So, I had all of that going on and at the same time I had some hungry people and as police I saw the opportunity to do some outreach to reach out to the people and to help.

“That was not a part of my original plan, but how we got into that was if you remember with the George Floyd killing by the police and then we saw a lot of that spilling over here with all of the rebellion and the demonstrations and so in the midst of all of this the police had killed a young man on East Street.

“So, we had the same thing happening with people thinking they would do the same level of disobedience in the country and there was this threat and I had to then step up and I realised that I can’t leave that to them, I have to take the lead and I went down into the heart of where the heat was speak to the people and in many instances fed those who were hungry because the truth is you can’t reach a person if their stomach is empty.”

Now that he has come to the end of his journey with the RBPF, a near 40-year career, Mr Rolle told The Tribune having not to report to work at 6.30am every day will take some time to adjust to.

Still his professional career at 58 years old is not quite over.

“I am supposed to be taking a post later as ambassador to the International Maritime Organisation. I’m looking forward to making that transition and going into London for a little while and serving my country over there.

“I’m looking forward to that and serving in another capacity. I am finished with policing now and I have to get used to not being a police anymore. I’ve been here for three quarters of my life essentially, so I have to make that change,” he said.