The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

ASSISTANT Commissioner of Police Kendal Strachan wants the Supreme Court to declare that the forced leave he took this year was not vacation time and that his transfer to the Ministry of Social Services is unlawful.

He is seeking punitive damages, according to a lawsuit his attorney Wayne Munroe, QC, filed on Tuesday.

His lawsuit argues that his transfer as chief of security to the Willie Mae Pratt School for Girls and Simpson Penn Centre for Boys equates to a dismissal from his post and a demotion.

The suit also argues that the acts of the commissioner have been inconsistent with the appointment, removal and disciplinary procedures under statute law and the constitution.

According to his affidavit, he told Police Commissioner Anthony Ferguson in March he did not agree with the direction that he take the 36 weeks of vacation he had accumulated. He consulted Mr Munroe and was told not to submit a request for time off if he had no desire to take vacation leave.

Some of the officers not forced to take vacation leave had more accumulated holiday time than he did, he says. His affidavit says Commissioner Ferguson has more than 63 weeks of accumulated vacation, Assistant Commissioner Samuel Butler has more than 40 weeks, Assistant Commissioner Ismella Delancey has more than 75 weeks and Deputy Commissioner of Police Paul Rolle has more than 36 weeks of vacation.

“During my time on the Royal Bahamas Police Force I was unable to take the annual vacation leave allowed to me,” he says. “This was not unusual as it has always been represented that the manpower and operational needs of the force generally militated against officers taking annually the leave allowed to them. This accumulation of leave was addressed at the time of my enlistment with the force by officers exhausting accumulating leave as pre-retirement leave.”

His leave ended on December 9. He was informed in a letter of his transfer to head security at the juvenile detention facilities. He says he told the commissioner on December 10 that he would not report to the Ministry of Social Services but to the “permanent secretary of national security as there is no linkage with social services in the terms and conditions of my employment.” He says two days later, he delivered a letter to Commissioner Ferguson; Mr Munroe in that letter questioned his transfer and requested a response from the commissioner.

ACP Strachan says he was denied access to police headquarters: his access card was deactivated, his assigned radio was disabled and he was removed from the automated platform, AS400, and the force email platform, Lotus Note. Officers from the communications department told him they were instructed to deactivate his access card and radio, he says.

“Access to the AS400 platform is a tool on which every interaction with the police is recorded,” he said. “It is a vital tool in checking on the background of any of interest. I am aware in the course of my career that all active police officers would have some live access to the AS400 system as well as selected civilian staff of the police force, I am aware of this as I was involved in the implementation of the system.”

He says he met Acting Permanent Secretary of National Security Eugene Poitier and Under Secretary Cheryl Darvile on December 10. Mr Poitier, he says, told him the commissioner could place him wherever he chooses. He says he received no information regarding protocol nor a detailed briefing.

His affidavit says in 2017 he was elected past president of the FBINA Latin America & Caribbean Chapter, but was unable to complete his presidency term because of what happened to him this year, causing business under his presidency to go unfulfilled.

“I am seeking exemplary damages on the basis that the commissioner of police is abusing a power, which should be discouraged by the awarding of exemplary damages,” his affidavit notes.

According to the lawsuit, he wants the Supreme Court to declare that the mandatory leave from the Royal Bahamas Police Force imposed on him is “not properly to be classified as vacation leave” and should be considered administrative leave.