By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Senior Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
A CABINET sub-committee will recommend how the government can stop incurring liabilities from court cases involving brutality from uniformed officers, with taxpayers presently on the hook for millions in damages and costs.
Latrae Rahming, director of communications in the Office of the Prime Minister, said the Minnis administration’s pre-election fiscal report did not account for $13m in liabilities from court judgments. He said the Davis administration is “very concerned” about the mounting legal expenses.
The Office of the Attorney General,” he said yesterday, “has undertaken an exercise to identify categories where we are seeing material, and in instances, recurring damages against the government and to propose a way forward and a strategy aimed at minimising these instances”.
“One example of this is litigation involving brutality by uniformed officers. This is a grouping where we see material liability for the government in legal judgements and awards. Cabinet, recognising this issue, has appointed a joint committee of ministers to review the issue and in instances engage with the staff associations of these branches of law enforcement to reach a mutual solution and recommendation on the issue. We will do this with other indemnified groupings where we see judgments and awards against the government.
“At this point, we cannot quantify a liability amount attributable to cases under the former administration, only to say the liability is significant.”
Mr Rahming said the cabinet sub-committee will include Attorney General Ryan Pinder, Minister of National Security Wayne Munroe and Minister of Immigration Keith Bell.
Mr Munroe has spoken about needing to reduce the state’s exposure to liability from court judgements involving law enforcement officers. Just last week the Supreme Court awarded $82,856 in damages and costs to Pedro Morley after an officer punched him in his mouth in 2019, damaging eight of his teeth.
Earlier this year the Supreme Court awarded another man, Latario Rolle, more than $163,000 in damages after an officer punched out his teeth when he questioned him about his arrest in 2015.
A number of judgements have been made against the government because of matters involving immigration officers as well.
In August, the Court of Appeal said Kenyan national Douglas Ngumi must receive $750,000. Mr Ngumi was unlawfully detained at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre for nearly seven years. He received damages for false imprisonment, assault and battery; aggravated damages; exemplary damages; constitutional damages and special damages.
Comments
The_Oracle 2 years, 5 months ago
Absolutely reprehensible that the Government is attempting to absolve themselves of any responsibility for the actions of one branch of their responsibility. What next? Perhaps in stead of large monetary awards Cabinet would prefer personal responsibility with Jail time? Reduce your liability by POLICING your POLICE FORCE!
tribanon 2 years, 5 months ago
Bingo!
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 5 months ago
exactly. Theyre fixing the wrong problem
sheeprunner12 2 years, 5 months ago
I agree. Hold the ill-disciplined government officers accountable. Regardless of what Department they work in. We need to be able to hold Cabinet accountable too. Voting once per 5 years is not good enough.
JokeyJack 2 years, 5 months ago
I agree with Cabinet on this. People should be able to be put in jail for 7 years without charges and police should be able to punch out anyone's teeth they feel like. As we strengthen our ties with China, it is very important that Bahamians get schooled in all aspects of how a police state operates. A part of that training is already in effect with the vaccination cards that have your photo on it along with a flamingo etc. Show your ID everytime you enter or exit a building. Pray that if a police punches out your teeth, that they don't grow back (cause then it could happen again). Communism is a new idea, but we will eventually get used to it. Heck, i see a lot of people driving alone in their cars wearing masks. Those persons are almost fully trained. I couldn't see if they had teeth from a distance.
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 5 months ago
lol. You need binoculars
tribanon 2 years, 5 months ago
This is perhaps the most shocking and frankly mortifying proposal that has ever come out of The Office of The Prime Minister. And I think it's safe to say the political careers of Davis, Pinder, Munroe and Bell will all quickly come to a screeching halt if they recommend government proceed with such unconstitutional nonsense.
Has this PLP government lost sight of the fact that the The Bahamas is a democracy and the Bahamian people elect a goverment to serve the people within the context of the rights and freedoms guaranteed under our Constitution and system of laws? With that most fundamental thought in mind, how can any cabinet sub-committee possibly be formed and have legal standing for the purpose of the government seeking to indemnify any branch of itself from illegal acts committed against the people.
The absurdity of this proposal, whereby government would be indemnifying itself and/or introducing liability caps to protect itself from the harm and damages inflicted by it's very own law enforcement officers on members of the public, is beyond comprehension. This would be an abuse of power of the kind only found in authoritarian police states ruled by brutal dictators.
Just how dumb can Davis, Pinder, Munroe and Bell possibly be? No government duly elected by the people has any legal authority or standing whatsoever to indemnify any portion or branch of itself against the very people it was elected to govern and serve within the full context the Constitution of The Bahamas.
The fact that we now have an attorney-general appointed by Davis, namely Ryan Pinder, who apparently lacks a gifted legal mind and would be prepared to entertain such foolishness by a cabinet sub-committee comprised of only other lawyers with similarly ungifted legal minds, should give us all pause for some very serious thought.
joeblow 2 years, 5 months ago
... maybe start by hiring emotionally stable people with a relative degree of intelligence. Giving ignorant, poorly socialized people authority and a gun is a recipe for disaster!
ohdrap4 2 years, 5 months ago
Oh no. looks like they recruited the ministry of education to be in charge of this task.
B_I_D___ 2 years, 5 months ago
Ahhh yes!! The hits just keep on coming...Go Brave GO!!
tribanon 2 years, 5 months ago
Davis just isn't capable of figuring out that the baseball bat he thinks he's using to beat others opposed to him and his policies is actually beating him all about his own head. There's no great anti-Minnis sentiment for Davis to seek protection behind now. Accordingly, He must be seeing stars each time he hits himself in his head with his own baseball bat. LOL
mandela 2 years, 5 months ago
Upon being received into service an RBPF officer should be made to take out an insurance policy to cover a certain amount of liability should they do s$$t, so as, if they cross the line they can be sued personally, In this way, I can guarantee that officers would think twice before acting out because they know it will cost them and not the government, which is us the citizens, this way everyone wins.
ohdrap4 2 years, 5 months ago
The annual insurance for policeman malpractice would be about 2 times his sakary.
BONEFISH 2 years, 5 months ago
An idiotic idea. The uniform branches are agents of the state. A s a result, the state should be held liable for their actions. They are not independent contractors.
This is simply the wrong method to deal with this problem. Better recruitment, training and management of officers is needed. They are not dealing with the root cause of the problem. This is simply wrong. This reasoning is symptomatic of the governing of this country.
tribanon 2 years, 5 months ago
"Idiotic idea", yes. Unless the evil powers that be are actually thinking about privatizing a good portion of the uniform branches like they've already done under the radar in the US.
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