The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

POLICE Commissioner Paul Rolle confirmed yesterday that he is demitting office on July 5, after months of speculation on the date.

Commissioner Rolle, speaking to reporters at the Caribbean Commissioner’s of Police Conference, finally revealed his intentions to fully retire after first having announced he was leaving the Royal Bahamas Police Force back in March.

The Prime Minister has to now select a new Police Commissioner to replace Rolle who was as appointed in March, 2020 and would have spent 40 years in the RBPF after having joined in May, 1983.

Deputy Commissioner, Clayton Fernander, has acted in the capacity of Police Commissioner when Mr Rolle was out of office.

Mr Rolle said about his departure that he was not forced out of office and it was his decision to leave on his own, saying, “Forced out by who?” He added: “Nobody could force the Commissioner out. I said when you’ll asked me in December that I will leave when I’m ready.”

Commissioner Rolle had at most times an amicable relationship with the media, despite some gaffes and abrupt statements on matters he was unable to address at certain times. These included when he said “weak men” were at fault for their own suicides, but apologized shortly thereafter for the comments after public uproar.

Commissioner Rolle also said: “The cabinet through the Prime Minister will announce who the next Commissioner will be and I would just ask the members of the press to wait for that and let it be done properly. As I indicated we serve and I don’t like when we get to the end of your tenure and people are making mischief.”

He added that if reporters wanted to be mischievous then “three could play this game and I enjoyed playing it.”

He was referring to the barrage of questions he received when first announcing his retirement and how he felt some reporters were making more out of the announcement of his departure than warranted. “Youngsters, who was just born yesterday, most of them aren’t even 30 yet and they are putting questions to me about when I’m leaving? That’s not appropriate and I took issue with that.”

Nonetheless Commissioner Rolle said he was “pleased” with his service over the years and is looking forward to his retirement.

He will leave behind a very different police force compared with when he first entered some 40 years ago, where officers now have increased options for training and re-training in all crime fronts.

Issues like cyber crime and illicit drugs are things he has made a hallmark of his tenure, with noticeable narcotics seizures along with increased surveillance on cyber crime.

He has also managed the political minefield of his position, having been the lead investigator on several high-profile fraud, corruption and abuse of power cases, two of which he is overseeing currently.

Commissioner Rolle said that he had to change tactics of the officers under his command after seeing the influence of US police brutality spilling over into The Bahamas.

“After the killing of a young man in the United States, his name escapes me, by the police officers, the world is now a small place and that we saw it spilling here and I had to pull out all the stops. Essentially change our tactics and message to try to get into community and re-sensitize our police officers of the need to work with persons in the community. I led the charge and went out to try to repair and to build the relationships with the communities.”

Acknowledging that the RBPF had some negative interactions with some members of the public he said there was a great need to change that image and reinforce into the minds of the public that police officers are also members of the same communities they serve.

One of the last initiatives before he leaves office is with organizing a “regional ballistics laboratory,” something Commissioner Rolle feels would assist with tracking firearms that move from one country in the Caribbean to another. “The thought is to have a central database or repository where all of this information can be deposited and we can do a cross country search,” he s