The Tribune

NATIONAL Security Minister Wayne Munroe has had a bumpy start to his new role.

His handling of Corrections Commissioner Charles Murphy being placed on leave and two deputy commissioners his firm had previously been represented in a matter connected to Mr Murphy being brought back to their roles was awkward to say the least.

It smacked very much of a situation where he should have stepped aside and let someone else handle the matter at the very least. The fact that Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis went on to say that he did not know Mr Munroe had represented the deputy commissioners previously – even though it was reported in this very newspaper – showed a failure to communicate fully with the Prime Minister over the situation.

But now, this week, we see a minister seemingly determined to hold people to account where necessary.

In yesterday’s Tribune, we reported his call for the outcome of police tribunals to no longer be secret, after a case where a police officer punched a man in his mouth so hard it damaged his teeth, leading to a payout of more than $80,000 for the officer’s victim.

Mr Munroe said he had found nothing in the police disciplinary regulations that could justify secrecy.

Then, today, we report that he wants the officers who were on duty when a woman was indecently assaulted by a man with whom she was forced to share a cell to be “held to account”, and that his ministry has no interest whatsoever in “defending or protecting slack people”.

Further, today, we see a case where a video has been circulated seemingly showing a plain clothes police officer choking a woman outside a nightspot, and then demanding a phone be handed over when he sees it is recording him.

While acknowledging there is a process to follow to ensure the video is indeed showing what it seems to show, he said that every agency has “good” and “bad” apples, and it is his ministry’s job to root out the rotten ones.

He said: “The system is designed to root out bad officers because in every profession you have bad professionals. The good apples have no interest in being in the same barrel with bad apples. If you have evidence, if you have complaints, please make them so the system can be engaged to deal with it.”

It is encouraging to hear that officers who fall short of the standards expected of them will be held to account.

We would suggest that the system is far from designed to root out those officers, however.

When The Tribune reported in 2019 about an incident in Eleuthera in which three innocent people claimed they were tortured by police, one of many frustrating elements in the story is that the victims followed the complaints process. They filed formal complaints after being released at the Complaints and Corruption Unit. For more than a year, they heard nothing. Then after their story went public the police called them in to discuss the complaint only to be told the time had expired in which it could be addressed by the force.

That matter has since come before the courts – but it highlights that the system itself needs reform if complaints are going to be dealt with adequately.

It is refreshing to hear that Mr Munroe seemingly does not intend to let officers get away with slackness – or worse.

It has to be about more than individual cases, however – but rather making sure that safeguards are in place ahead of time, such as proper training for officers and cameras in police stations in all areas where they deal with suspects or detainees, and a process that doesn’t let time slip away once a complaint is made.

Mr Munroe might get some resistance from some officers after his comments – but every officer should want a force that is up to the job, without officers who step over the line.

If that is Mr Munroe’s goal, we applaud it.