POLICE Commissioner Clayton Fernander. (File photo)
By LEANDRA ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
POLICE Commissioner Clayton Fernander defended the high number of assistant commissioners in the Royal Bahamas Police Force after recent promotional exercises brought the number to 14.
A manpower audit in 2018 found that the RBPF is top-heavy and only needs six assistant commissioners.
According to the Jamaican Constabulary Force’s website, Jamaica’s national police force has six assistant commissioners. The Metropolitan Police Service, the United Kingdom’s largest police force with more than 47,000 officers, has seven.
Commissioner Fernander said early Wednesday morning: “I was able to justify the amount of officers that were promoted to the board and we want effective management at the division.
“We got a black eye in social media in recent times where you saw two young officers was engaged in some altercation at the station and there was lack of supervision at those divisions.
“What you will see now is an assistant commissioner of police is in charge of two stations, and we will have a command structure across the board. You will see that, so I think the promotion went very well.”
The Minnis administration was criticised for a similar promotion exercise in 2020 that increased the number of ACPs to eight despite the conclusions of the manpower audit it ordered.
Commissioner Fernander said more senior people are needed in growing Family Islands like Exuma, Eleuthera and Abaco.
“We are even trying to identify assistant commissioners to man those areas because the family of islands, they are growing, the economy is doing well and we are looking for safety across the board,” he said.
He also discussed the promotions in the context of a recent ruling where the former head boy of Westminster College was awarded $60k in damages and costs for unlawful arrest and false imprisonment.
The youth was arrested in 2020, forced to sleep on the floor while in custody for 17 hours, and made to miss several BGCSE exams.
Asked if the officers involved in that will be disciplined, Commissioner Fernander said: “My legal team is still looking into that matter, so I don’t want to go in-depth with it, but we are talking about leadership at those divisions, and you would see the structure in my meet the press in 2024, early January.”
This month, 721 officers were promoted through the ranks of corporal, sergeant, inspector, assistant superintendent, superintendent and chief superintendent.
Comments
ExposedU2C 10 months, 3 weeks ago
And our country only needs at most 18 MPs and 6 Senators.
As for Fernander, we all know he is about as incompetent and useless as they come. He epitomizes nothing more than a heavily sucking leech on the taxpayers of our small nation.
concernedcitizen 10 months, 3 weeks ago
It is to the point in the Bahamas where the politicians there families and friends are just toting the money out of the treasury in wheel barrows
moncurcool 10 months, 3 weeks ago
Is COP for real? Is he saying that you need an ACP to oversee a station? Seriously? Is that the point of the promotions? Is that what he has as justification?
This COP really needs to be retired immediately. He just is the picture of incompetence and ineffective leadership.
concernedcitizen 10 months, 3 weeks ago
Its just another way to get money to family ,friends and political allies from the treasury
sheeprunner12 10 months, 3 weeks ago
This is all the doing of the New Day PLP Govt to promote & stack every agency with PLP loyalists, so that any FNM government that takes over will be frustrated and stifled from getting any meaningful work done to reform or upgrade (or downsize) or right fit the civil service.
We have seen it before. No need to promote 700 PF officers when other agencies wait for many years to get 20 promotions. Classic pandering to a specific group.
ExposedU2C 10 months, 3 weeks ago
The elitist ruling class within the hierarchy of the PLP want a police state controlled by themselves. To achieve that, they need to have complete control over the police no matter what. And that means the Davis led PLP government will dole out to the police whatever taxpayer funds are necessary to buy their loyalty to the PLP hierarchy and to hell with all other civil servants, public healthcare, public education, etc., etc.
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