The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

LOCAL activists are again calling for an independent body to investigate allegations of police wrongdoing, saying there needs to be a fair and unbiased process to ensure that when officers do wrong, they are held accountable.

Khandi Gibson, founder of advocacy group Families of All Murder Victims, said more transparency is needed when dealing with investigations into the Royal Bahamas Police Force.

“There needs to be accountability and transparency on the Royal Bahamas Police Force. Moving forward, we need to have a commission done who investigates when the police does wrong. How could you ever get justice?” she asked.

“I’ve said that for years. There needs to be an independent body to investigate members of the Royal Bahama Police Force once they do stuff that’s unethical, there needs to be that.”

She continued: “I also believe that they need to be evaluated. Just like us, those police officers need evaluation too. They see people getting killed, they see people getting raped, they see people getting stabbed so come on they’re only human too. The average mind could only take so much. . .so who’s evaluating them?

“Every three months, they need to be evaluated and go to see a psychologist to test to see where their mental frame is. They need help too.”

Alicia Wallace, another human rights advocate, said there is a need in the country to comprehensively address the issue of police violence.

She said: “We hear stories about the way that officers step outside of their role in enforcing the law causing harm to people. It’s in the news several days and then we forget about it. The people who suffer at the hands of police. We don’t have hashtags for them and there’s no sustained movement for the protection of people against the system that is supposed to protect us.”

She also called for the publication of all police involved killings as well as the results of those investigations.

“I think we have an expectation that law enforcement officers can and will get away with anything. What we really need is a public record of not only public killings but misconduct by police and the outcome of investigations so we could get a clear picture of what’s happening, what’s at the root and what is required for us to address it because we’re just getting the stories one at a time.”

Police Commissioner Paul Rolle has previously said he has “every confidence” in how police-involved killings are investigated despite calls for an independent body to investigate the matters.

The Police Complaints Inspectorate, a civilian organisation that is an important police oversight body, is supposed to ensure investigations into police complaints are conducted properly.

However the inspectorate’s work has been critically disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and has not completed its prioritised tasks, according to chairman Tanya McCartney last month.

The US State Department noted in its human rights report last year that the body had not met as of September 2017.

The Minnis administration subsequently appointed five people, including Ms McCartney, retired assistant commissioner John Ferguson, Matthew Aubry, Allan Emmanuel, Franklyn Bethel and Hilbert Collie.

Ms McCartney said in October that the members were reappointed when their 12-month tenure ended in July.