The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said he found voice notes purporting to capture a quid-pro-quo arrangement involving a senior police officer and a gang leader “terribly disturbing”.

“We want to ensure that we restore the confidence of Bahamian people in our police force because

there are many good police officers that are doing a wonderful job in protecting our property, our lives, and our country and citizens,” he exclusively told The Tribune Tuesday night. “We need to ensure that we get to the bottom of whatever the tapes mean, and to ensure the confidence, I’m advised that they will be calling in assistance so that there will be not only a semblance but an actual independent review.”

Mr Davis said he could not give more information about the involvement of foreign investigators.

“I’m leaving that to the investigators, and I want them to set the parameters, but I want to make sure that what happened, that we get to the bottom of it all and that the confidence of the Bahamian people in the police force has been restored,” he said.

He said it is “quite alarming” that many Bahamians do not trust the police force to investigate the matter probably because it involves a senior officer.

“We have to appreciate that we’re all humans, we make mistakes, we have to understand what’s going on and where the bad apples exist, we have to weed them out,” he said. “The overall goal is to find the truth and let the chips fall where they may and any persons who are culpable, they should be brought to justice.”

Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander has said the Security and Intelligence Branch of the police force will spearhead the investigation and that the Police Complaints Inspectorate will supervise that branch. Although the Inspectorate is a civilian oversight body, it has continually failed to perform its legislative functions and has no investigators, raising questions about whether it can adequately oversee the most high-profile internal police investigation in years. Officials are drafting legislation to create a more robust oversight body.

Commissioner Fernander said law enforcement teams from the US and UK will help with the investigation; he has yet to give details about this.

The investigation follows the leak of five voice notes purportedly involving an arrangement involving a senior officer, a lawyer, and two recently murdered gang members: Michael Fox Jr, and Dino Smith.

Police had issued wanted posters for Fox and Smith concerning the theft of $1,475,000 from an unattended security vehicle transporting cash for the Bank of The Bahamas to a private airport on November 2. However, the men were never charged with the incident.

Fox was killed in May, while Smith was murdered on his birthday in January.

The Davis administration has consistently connected gangs to the country’s murder rate. It passed the Anti-Gang Bill 2024 in April after Mr Davis vowed to introduce the toughest gang legislation ever.

“If you are associated with a gang, we are coming after you,” he said. “If you have a lot of shiny things, no way to explain your wealth, we are going to seize what you have.”