#SpeakingOut – Whither the police force?

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today Inc.

by M Taylor

Permit me a few comments in your paper, madam editor. As the widow of a former police officer, it grieves me to see the political interference in the Royal Barbados Police Force yet again by Government.

There was a time when the retirement of a commissioner of police meant that the next in line, the deputy commissioner, would automatically be elevated into that position. Now, when one would have expected that deputy commissioner Erwin Boyce would move into the office of the commissioner of police, word among his colleagues is that there is political manoeuvring going on that might frustrate that situation. Why is it that politicians got preferences as to who holds the power in the police force? What is it that they are doing or plan to do, that they need to get their man in place?

The Attorney General spoke the other day about the pending retirement of commissioner Tyrone Griffith but he said nothing of the retirement of the older deputy commissioner Oral Williams who is also supposed to be going home.

Can Mr Marshall speak to rumblings in the organisation that there is the likelihood that Mr Boyce might be snubbed and the aging Williams who they made a deputy commissioner at the 11th hour be brought back post-retirement age on a contract as the commissioner? Is this true or do we have to wait and see?

Some of my acquaintances are asking why not make him a consultant, if he is one of your boys, like the former commissioner who is now a consultant on something or the other? My son had thoughts of joining that organisation after he left Coleridge & Parry but I advised him to wait until there is a change of Government, even if he is too old by then. But who knows, he might be able to join in two-years-time.