The Tribune

By LETRE SWEETING

Tribune Staff Reporter

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

HUMAN Rights Bahamas said the police force should disclose the reward officers will receive through a new arrest incentive programme, calling the competition ill-conceived.

Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander defended the competition on Wednesday. A leaked memo said the competition is designed to “foster teamwork, boost morale, and recognise outstanding performance.”

The system awards points to teams based on the number of arrests made for major or minor offences. It also includes points for stopping and searching people and issuing tickets.

Commissioner Fernander said police are investigating the leak of the memo.

“Human Rights Bahamas is deeply concerned by the revelation that the Royal Bahamas Police Force is offering rewards to officers for making arrests,” HRB told The Tribune yesterday.

 “The police are already paid to do their job. If the leadership of the Royal Bahamas Police Force believes salaries for officers are too low, they should petition the government to raise them across the board, not create the atmosphere of a competitive hunt in which members of the public are the prey.

 “Human Rights Bahamas calls on the police force to disclose whether the ultimate reward for this competition is financial and, if not, what it does involve. Certainly, we urge the Ministry of National Security to step in and bring an end to this ill-conceived scheme.”

 National Security Minister Wayne Munroe previously dismissed the competition as fake news. He is currently out of the country.

 Human Rights Bahamas said that given the rate of police brutality claims, a competitive arrest system is a “powder keg waiting to explode”.

 “We are already dealing with an alarmingly high rate of police brutality claims and officer-involved killings,” HRB said.

 “Officers are routinely accused of threatening and torturing suspects to obtain coerced confessions, and videos of police misconduct of various kinds have proliferated in recent times.

 “At the same time, violent crime has placed even the most well-meaning and professional officers under extreme stress to achieve results.

 “There is no question that such an incentive scheme runs a huge risk of enticing officers to make false arrests on little or no evidence, seriously violating the human rights of members of the public as a result. It could easily spin out of control with catastrophic and far-reaching consequences for the public’s faith in law enforcement.”

 In defending the scheme, Commissioner Fernander said such programmes exist elsewhere. Nonetheless, it is common for such methods to be criticised abroad when discovered by the public.

 Women’s rights advocate Alicia Wallace, the director of Equality Bahamas, said the system incentivises lawless behaviour.

“This reward system, whether or not anything like it exists elsewhere, is certainly cause for concern,” she said.

“The programme is the incentivisation of lawless behaviour by police, harassment of people already vulnerable to police and their discriminatory views, and abuse of power,” she said. “The commissioner ought to know better, and police ought to be held to a higher standard. Gamifying policing is not the way to create a safe environment for us.

 “It is telling that even the minister of national security, not known for particularly sound takes, dismissed this as fake news.”

 “We are all aware of the issue of police brutality and, perhaps more common, abuse of power.

 “People fear the police, which is distinct from respect, which is inspired, among other factors, by authority operating in ways that are just, right, and respectful.

 “Very recent news stories include one about an officer who used his position to have a woman detained and assaulted her, and the student who was assaulted by officers and taken to the police station.

 “There is good reason to be alarmed by this reward system as it encourages police officers to harass people, and we know that there are people who are disproportionately seen as suspicious and police decide do not belong in certain areas.

 “These are black people, young people, and people experiencing poverty. Police ought to do their jobs properly, which includes answering calls and quickly going to scenes of domestic violence, regardless of their so-called personal views, pursue suspects — not people they simply look down upon — within the constraints of the law, and value the lives and well being of people.”