The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

TWO police officers were arrested on Sunday in connection with a recent armed robbery, Chief Superintendent Paul Rolle confirmed yesterday.

Chief Supt Rolle, who is the officer-in-charge of the Central Detective Unit (CDU), said the two men were taken into custody by officers of the Select Enforcement Team but declined to release any other details.

However, sources close to the investigation said the officers were both attached to the Tourism Policing Unit and it is alleged that the officers used their government issued firearms during the robbery.

Earlier this year, Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade revealed that 19 police officers were discharged from the Royal Bahamas Police Force for disciplinary reasons in 2014, three of them after being found guilty in court.

Commissioner Greenslade also revealed that two of three officers who were discharged after criminal convictions in 2014 were remanded to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

Fifteen officers were discharged for “ceasing to be efficient police officers,” and their discharges were “deemed necessary by the commissioner in the public interest.”

Another officer was discharged for “being absent without leave for 30 days or more” and was “deemed to have vacated his office by law.”

The number of complaints against police officers dropped from 285 in 2013 to 257 in 2014, according to the Complaints and Corruptions Unit.

According to the unit’s data, last year there were 115 complaints of assault against officers compared to 134 in 2013, a decrease of 14 per cent.

While speaking to reporters earlier this year, Mr Greenslade said in 2015 officers must be held to a “higher standard.”