The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

POLICE Commissioner Ellison Greenslade yesterday neither confirmed nor denied whether officials discovered four bodies on a cay near Cuba earlier this month.

Speculation over the matter was raised after Defence Force Commodore Roderick Bowe confirmed that a discovery was made at Anguilla Cay in the Cay Sal Bank area.

Commodore Bowe told the media that any further details would have to come from the Commissioner of Police.

However at a press conference yesterday, Mr Greenslade warned the public to be “very, very careful” when listening to crime “opinions” that do not come from him.

Last week, police told The Tribune that investigators did not find any skeletal remains on the cay, but said they were continuing their investigations.

Mr Greenslade told the media yesterday that there was “absolutely no contradiction about bodies being found”.

“Reports come to the police department. When they arrive at our attention we do the due diligence in terms of following up. When the commissioner is satisfied that we have anything to report to you in respect of dead bodies we’ll let you know. Anybody else that’s reporting, well, as I said previously, when people offer opinions and they are not the Commissioner of Police and they are speaking about crime, you should be very, very careful.”

Mr Greenslade also defended the integrity of the police force in response to media questions on an attempted armed robbery that was released in a US Embassy crime warning, but not included in the local crime report sent out to the media.

In a crime warning to American residents and visitors last week, the US Embassy highlighted an incident involving “three assailants” who attempted to rob an armoured truck parked in front of Wendy’s restaurant on Cable Beach.

“I am totally embarrassed,” Mr Greenslade said, “totally distressed, totally offended, whatever terminology you would wish to use to indicate to our people in this country how I feel about that in terms of the general sentiments. I don’t speak to the US Embassy, I speak to our people. I have no comments to offer to the US Embassy. I speak to our people. You are going to have to repose some confidence in our people. We are your sons and daughters and we live in a beautiful country.

“Please, I beg you, stop selling the Bahamas short. I have a difficulty with that. And I’m not sure what that agenda is because it must be an agenda and it’s not a good agenda. I have travelled the world and I’m telling you this police organisation can stand up and match with the best of them. We are decent people; we are hardworking, committed people. We turn up everyday and we give you 110 per cent.

“Stop asking the commissioner questions that we already know the answers for. I come to you with credibility, a spirit of transparency and openness. I am the only commissioner in the history of this country that has taken the statistics of the police department and posted it to the website for all to see.

“What is being said that is not properly verified with this commissioner is out of order. No other person reserves the right to speak for me unless I brief them and those people that I brief are my Minister of National Security and the Right Honourable Prime Minister.

“Any other person that is offering an opinion, the public would do very well to be careful with those opinions. Let’s not make an issue out of nothing,” he said.