The Tribune

ON OCTOBER 1, 608 Royal Bahamas Police Force officers were promoted throughout the ranks, from constables to assistant commissioners. In addition, several new ranks have been created to accommodate them.

At the time, Dwight Smith, Police Staff Association President, congratulated the promoted officers, encouraged those who were not promoted, and praised Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade for making the selections. “If they were indeed his selections,” was his caustic comment.

Several weeks before the announcement, Mr Smith publicly expressed concern about possible political interference in selecting officers for promotion. After the announcement, he was still concerned, promising to “investigate” certain matters.

Mr Smith noted that the October promotions were the largest exercise of its kind since the first Christie administration. However, he questioned the need for the ranks of acting inspector (49), acting assistant superintendent (34), and acting superintendent (23).

He noted that these ranks had been eliminated under the Ingraham administration, often being referred to as “political ranks”.

Although Mr Smith has said no more, rumours still circulate within the force. Many believe that the exercise was indeed political, and that some of the promotions were not deserved. However, with a shrug of their shoulders in the face of the inevitable, they are doing their duty and chasing the criminals.

Today the Force is about 3,000 strong with 30 recruits in training at the Police College.

However, the concern that is gaining traction is the question: With government’s constant “poor mouth” cry, where is the money coming from? It is claimed that police reservists are still awaiting their pay.

On February 11, 2009, in a debate in the House of Assembly on the Police Act, 2009, then Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham noted that when his party came into office in 1992 it faced “challenges associated with an undermanned police force”, compounded by the fact that between 1985 and 1987 the “Commissioner of Police had not been permitted to recruit officers for the Force.” The policy, he said, had taken a heavy toll on the Force.

By the second half of 1987, the PLP recognised the folly of their ways, and resumed recruitment.

However, the shortfall that resulted in the two year lapse of non-recruitment resulted in a rush for graduates to quickly get “boots on the ground”. This resulted in shortening the training time of recruits, which brought its own problems —poorly trained green horns on the streets after three months instead of the usual six months of training.

When the Ingraham government came to power in 1992, it not only reinstated the six-month training programme, but kept the new graduates for another six months under the supervision of senior officers, exposing them to the different areas of policing.

A review of the police force was commissioned, which recommended that the Force should not be “too top heavy”. It also recommended that a number of positions in the Force “should fall away”.

However, when the PLP was returned to power – despite the report’s recommendations – two positions were restored – Chief Superintendent and Chief Inspector.

Mr Ingraham had told the House that when the FNM was defeated in 2002 there were 1,540 Constables on the Force – that “was consistent with the structure that had been proposed” by the report, he said. By December of that year, the number was up to 1,592 because of the classes that came in as a result of the programme the Ingraham government had left in place.

However, by the time the Ingraham government was returned to office in 2007, the number of constables had fallen to 1,037 – the result of the PLP’s “inexplicable race” to hand out promotions.

He told the House that five years later when the FNM were returned to office in 2007 what they found was “unbelievable” – 749 Constables had been moved to Corporal, 417 Corporals had moved to Sergeant. “So the structure that had been recommended which called for four Assistant Commissioners of Police was at six, the post of Senior Assistant Commissioner was created and was at 4, the number of Chief Superintendents which was at 1 became 20, and in the case of Superintendents the number went up by five, from 36 to 41.”

“In 2002 the ratio of constables to the total force numbers amounted to 65 per cent. I would like everybody to get a promotion,” Mr Ingraham had told the House, “but I know that I have a duty to have a structured Police Force in my society. I also know how Police Forces operate elsewhere in the world; there are a certain number of positions. When there is a vacancy, you compete to fill that vacancy.“

By May 2007, he said, “65 per cent ratio (of constables to the full Force numbers) had fallen to 40 per cent. In our view there were too many chiefs and too few Indians.”

In this latest promotion exercise, not only have the number of men assigned to these various positions increased, but new positions have been created – eg acting assistant superintendent, acting superintendent, chief superintendent, and the ranks go on and on. No wonder thinking persons are wondering where the money is coming from to pay for these extra ranks.

It has also been noted that until the present Budget (2014-2015) the total number of persons in the police force was presented in each annual Budget. Also the Budget set out exactly how many persons could be engaged in specific ranks.

However, in the current Budget (2014-2015) the Government removed this accounting from the Budget and instead a lump sum has been provided for payment to policemen at whatever ranks they see fit. It was suggested that this permits promotion exercises as now to be carried out without regard to the budgeted Establishment and strength of the Force.