The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Please publish this open letter to:

Mr Ellison Greenslade,

Commissioner of Police,

East Street.

Re: Revelations from The House of Assembly, acknowledging that 460 suspects on bail are being electronically monitored.

Dear Commissioner,

Greetings. Praying for you, sir, and your officers of The Royal Bahamas Police Force, that God would not only keep you all safe, but would continue to give them good results.

Once again, I have been aroused from my sleep, and this time it is at 1:20 a.m., Tuesday, March 18, 2014.

Mr. Commissioner, given the statistics of 460 suspects that are out on bail, but being monitored, and I think that the police force needs to do a set of monitoring of their cases, to ensure that the five years does not creep up, and the system is left complying to the dictates of the Privy Council. “Where the sentence of death was not carried out within five years of the date of such sentences, and to do so thereafter constitute cruel and inhumane punishment.“

Sir, I am aware that once the police charges a suspect, completes his case file accordingly, and places the suspect(s) before the criminal courts, technically the police’s job is finished. Not really, because when one considers the exposure to danger your officers had to undergo, the man hours and other resources expended, is further proof that all of this good investigative work should be policed all the way to the guilty phase, I think. A final effort to ensure that those cases do not reach the barricade of five years, set by the Privy Council in London, England.

Having concluded thus, I humbly suggest the following: Perhaps you can form a Criminal Summary Section (CSS), and their job will be beginning now, the collection of information or summary on the 460 suspects out on bail, with these objectives in mind:-

• When was the criminal case instituted or made?

• The date of arraignment?

• Commencement of the case?

• Adjourned date.

• Length of time awaiting trial, as the case might be.

• When granted bail?

• When the matter set for trial. If at all!

• Commencing with the earliest to the present.

Sir, the advantages are many. The police would be up-to-date on the trial status of these cases and would be in a position to actually see for themselves, which matters may be nearing the deadline.

Once a matter reaches the halfway mark, collaborations can then take place with the Attorney General’s office and the Attorney General. Such a move would help us to avoid the council’s road blocks.

Again, many thanks for the work The Police Force is doing, for and on behalf of the citizens of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas.

FRANK GILBERT,

Nassau,

March 18, 2014.