The Minister of National Security was asked for comment on an altercation involving a police officer of the Royal Bahamas Police Force.
Minister Wayne Munroe told reporters, “most are good and a few are bad. Every Commissioner of Police I’ve ever heard talk say they are keen not to be associated with the bad apples. So I’ve said it and I was criticized for telling the public you can record the police. The Commissioner of Police has said the same thing. And the issue is that after you do this recording now you have to make a complaint. Sending things around on social media isn’t enough. You have to make a complaint. You have to be prepared to come forward because a police officer will be given the same due process that other persons are.”
Munroe said the establishment of an independent body to investigate complaints is being considered. “When you get to be Commissioner, Commodore, Commissioner of Corrections, Director of Immigration, it is often useful to have an independent person come and have a look. We are now considering bodies to potentially be like INDECOM in Jamaica that can investigate also fully matters of serious complaints. The public is encouraged, we recruit human beings to be police officers. They may appear to do superhuman things, they may appear to be very brave but at the bottom of it they are human beings and so when they fail there’s a process for you to make a complaint.”
The officer and others appeared in the Magistrate’s Court on the island of Grand Bahama to answer to charges related to the altercation.
