CoP could be booted off ACC
David Baines, Cayman Islands Commissioner of Police (Photo by Dennie Warren Jr)
(CNS): The premier has said that the government is currently reviewing the situation regarding the make-up of the Anti-Corruption Commission, which could see the removal of the commissioner of police as the chair. Premier Alden McLaughlin said the elected arm of government has no control over the people who are appointed to that committee but it is responsible for ensuring it is properly constituted incorporating the relevant official post holders.
Asked about the motion filed by the opposition leader asking government to remove all of the official members, creating an entirely independent commission, the premier stated that events may overtake the motion because having a police commissioner as chair was not a perfect situation. He said that even the CoP has agreed that it was inappropriate for the holder of his office to be on it. McLaughlin said the commission did, however, need to be reviewed.
He said that the process was underway and government would seek to address the issue.
Alongside the commissioner of police, who the law states shall be the chair, the anti-corruption law requires the auditor general and the complaints commissioner to be on the ACC, as well as two private sector members appointed by the governor who must be retired members of the legal profession or former police officers.
However, from the very beginning the issue of the police commissioner chairing the body was questioned due to the obvious potential conflict of interest. The last complaints commissioner, Nicola Williams, departed the islands in January and the acting commissioner currently sits as the representative of that office until government finds a new complaints boss. However, the two private sector appointees both stepped down in February and have not yet been replaced.
Government is also considering the prospect of merging the Information Commissioner’s Office with the Office of the Complaints Commissioner and a new independent police complaints commission under what has been termed as a ‘super-ombudsman’s office’. Government may therefore choose to amend the law to appoint that new office holder as the ACC chair.
Category: Crime
What a misleading headline. You make it sound as though he is being removed for some kind of personal misconduct or for stoking controversy, when all that is happening is a review of whether officials can hold the post at all. I’m all for active journalistic critical inquiry, but this is straightforward bias too thinly-veiled. It makes me question all coverage of police matters on this site.
Yes right under the noses and watch full eyes of our colonial power eh Pitbull? So long as you support the realm errry lickle ting is going to Ok wid the UK? It’s a real pity you moles are not disciplined enough to keep quiet. The hiring of law enforcement personnel from one of the most corrupt jurisdictions in the Caribbean is deliberate and sanctioned. The outcomes and repercussions are predictable. ie. current state of the RCIPS!!!!!
I have absolutely no idea what language this poster is writing in.
Headline a little sensationalist. CoP himself questions it, slow time review taking place. Hardly being ‘Booted Off’. More like amicable agreement seems to me. The question should be why there remain two independent member gaps.
Locals protecting their own. A sign that Legge was right.
Of course Legge was right. That’s why Caymans ruling class had a problem with it. What the rest of the world calls corruption Cayman calls honorable.
What a shocking prospect. A territory that is riddled with corruption chooses this time to try to remove national oversight of a local committee.
BOOM! Problem solved.
Was it not the same Big Mac who refused to remove the Chief of Police as chairman when Ezzard and Arden brought the motion in 2010. XXXXX
I wonder why the ex-uk military are here training the police? They have 3 top drawer recent additions.
Because they are the best people to train armed response officers in tactical and weapons options. Many armed officers and instructors in the UK are former military so it is right that they are utilised on a British Territory to give the very best training to a police service who cannot rely on their own military experts for advice or backup should it be needed.
Stop trying to make something sinister from an everyday occurrence, police forces around the world have ex military staff in their employ for reasons that would be obvious to most intelligent people.
So what is your point?
All the local ex military were running late or couldn’t make it for some reason!
I am glad to read this, it is a do nothing position and chairmanship any way.
Now the CoP can concentrate on the job he is paid so highly to perform in this country, policing the communities. Now CoP with that extra time you now have, before you get distracted again, write the memo to have the police stations in North Side and East manned.
Let me speculate here……..this is the last you will ever hear of this Anti-Corruption Commission…….. there is not a damn one in Cabinet, nor their underlings, who really wants to declare all of their financial interests or holdings, as required by the law.
Combining all the entities that are charged at looking into what the top dogs in Government are up to, into a Super Ombudsman has to be a stroke of genius………if you want nothing to see the light of day. Oh yes, tie up the Auditor General into that super new mess as well………that will slow down those critical reports I am willing to wager. CAME, SET, MATCH!!!
Don’t all candidates running for political office already have to declare their assets? Just asking.
LOL, why not just cut the ties with the UK altogether, declare independence and staff all these posts locally?
Much easier to remove CoP from being chairman than dealing with mess of all Jamaican police officers, but we know that’s no secret, the goal is to get rid of UK
Independence? Are you crazy?
That would mean working hard to bring it about, responsibility that would have to be shouldered, accountability to ourselves and absolutely nobody left to blame!
No man, that can’t be done. Nobody wants that.
Appears as if someone just woke up from a deep sleep.
I hope that, that someone says awake, about time that they all wake up.
Too funny! Go back home!