CoP’s failure to hold promotion boards not unlawful
(CNS): Commissioner of Police Derek Byrne’s failure to hold any formal police promotion boards since he took up the job in 2016 is not a breach of human rights, his statutory duty or an unlawful administrative action, a court has found. Justice Marlene Carter heard the judicial review brought by a number of police officers who claimed their rights had been infringed and their careers stymied. She found that none of their claims were substantiated and there was no legal duty on the CoP’s part to convene promotional boards.
The case brought by Sergeant Sharon Lewis and the Royal Cayman Islands Police Association alleged that the CoP acted unlawfully because at the time the action was first filed there were more than 90 officers who had passed their promotional exams but not been promoted to the next rank.
No promotional board has been held since October 2015, which at the time the officers brought their legal case had been more than six years. Officers had instead been placed in acting roles in ranks above their substantive posts. Since then the RCIPS has introduced a new official promotion policy that officials have described as a competency-based promotion framework, where officers are put through a rigorous and competitive process in working towards achieving promotion.
In February last year, 34 officers advanced to the rank of inspector and sergeant through the new policy. The commissioner had argued that no promotional boards were held in anticipation of the new system and that he was under no obligation in law to hold any.
But the officers who brought the action said the failure to hold any promotional boards breached the previous police policy and had led to the commissioner using acting appointments to fill the gaps in policing. They argued that police officers had been denied the opportunity, in some cases for many years, to progress in their careers. The officers also claimed they had a legitimate expectation that the commissioner would act in accordance with the policy at the time of their action and hold a promotion board.
The decision by the commissioner to appoint officers to act in more senior jobs rather than going through an official promotion interview had led to the “cherry picking” of certain officers over others, even in cases where some officers had not passed a promotional exam, the officers claimed. They also said that some were in acting jobs for more than twelve months and the whole situation had led to qualified officers being sidelined.
However, the court found that regardless of the long period since any promotional board had been held, the commissioner had a discretionary right over promotions and was entitled to adopt a new system or policy.
The judge said the commissioner of police did not breach his statutory duty since there is nothing in the legislation or the promotion policy that forces the CoP to use promotional boards to promote officers. She said that the “CoP’s powers under section 6 are wide in their application” and he was able to make promotions as he “may see fit”.
Justice Carter also found that while failing to implement the Promotion Policy and making use of the acting positions, his decisions were rational, proportionate and procedurally fair. She said that in this case, nothing had been presented to the court to conclude that the CoP had acted outside the bounds of lawful administrative action.
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The cabinet should issue a policy directive (or amend the law) to say that there must be a board. Once you take a power from a board and give it to this commissioner, it facilitates abuse.
Just like government they need to scrap all their archaic colonial oppressive policies and adopt new, rational, proportionate and procedurally fair policies and laws that apply to all, including those in high-powered positions.
The poor commissioner. Can you imagine trying to manager the people there? The entitlement must be staggering. Can pick much cherries from a bag of crab apples
Disagree. Training all the staff is a managers job. Bypassing team members on basis of personal bias is abhorrent, and an international red flag signal that the manager should be fired.
This is also now in customs brought by old rcips staff. Cbc gone.
You can bet your ass the guy who let John John drive off with Wayne without so much as asking him to touch his nose will get a promotion soon though.
Yup, those are Byrne’s special cherries installed to keep the treasured two-tier system alive.
their is no discrimination….this is just another caymanian employment myth.
if there is discrimination there is a myriad of legal solutions….how many times has discrimination been proven????
There is. And it’s not just employment discrimination. Caymanians are routinely excluded in many factors of life here. I remember when a Caymanian with a common Caymanian last name tried to rent a condo on Seven Mile Beach for a weekend, and the owners said they are all booked up, but then someone else with an assumed foreign name was given the property for that same weekend.
ok show me the court cases where this has been proven…..
Well, it was decided in this case that it is not illegal to be a terrible biased boss and deficient leader, and that in fact, the CoP is free to wield the extraordinary latitude to arbitrarily promote people around those that are putting in the lifetime career of work. Great messaging to your team. Chins up everyone. Where do I sign up? /s
How about you start stopping and solving crime and then try for a promotion. CoP is actually a pretty sharp guy who is hamstrung by a broken system and the employees who try to rule the roost. RCIPS is a friggin joke unfortunately. Glad to hear this ruling.
Those entrance and promotional exams have got to be too easy.
The training is a joke too. Doesn’t work like the British system at all.
Maybe this could be why moral is so low and some officers are not performing up to caliber.
that’s a made a long time of worked hard towards a promotion and an even longer time that there were no promotion boards held. that’s what approximately 7 years? it says if they were waiting for new policies to be implemented. but what about the Forgotten officers under the old policy? that should have been retroactive. it may not have been a human rights issue but there are other grounds their cases could have been filed under so maybe their case wasn’t properly reasonably presented. I would do hope that they refile their case or appeal under other grounds.
excuse me, when did they ever do anything? to say it’s lack of promotion that is causing the ineptitude is classic laziness that is rampant in the rcips.
If they don’t have any incentive to do better, why would they? I have a lot of complaints about the police too, but I can empathize with being stuck in a stagnant position with no hope of moving up, while others get cherry-picked for better jobs and opportunities just because they cozy up to management. It is very demoralizing and demotivating to bust your ass for years to get nowhere. I can understand why some of them have just given up.
This.
Local officers complaining no doubt, praying for the day he will leave no doubt so they can all promote themselves and fam.
Awesome
Yeah. Better just import more corrupt cops form Jamaica.
Based on what I have been observing of late, it seems the COP is outsmarting the corrup, lazy, self-serving officers in the service. Maybe this is an inexpensive way of getting them to give it up and leave. We keep complaining that there are too many Jamaicans in the service. Well, he came here and found a lot of them and the corruption and ineffectiveness was at an all time high. Its hard to gauge his progress and effectiveness however because all the information we would rely on to see how much better of worse the service is currently is considered sensitive information. I think we need more transparency so we can truly know whether or not COP Byrne has made things better or worse. My gut tells me its better.
COP has been pi$$ing into the wind since he arrived in Cayman. Having to deal with the (Jamaican) Police Association, CIG demanding Caymanians are recruited first, internecine conflicts, officers who you wouldn’t put in charge of a mop and bucket wanting promotion and kudos.
Come March, it’ll be Dep Comm Walton who has to sort out the mess when Byrne leaves RCIPS. The bhoy isn’t perfect to be sure but he’s had a crap hand to play a lot of the time.
Just get on with the job and keep people safe.
You are a waste of space
Our cop is useless with a capital Y, no better than his predecessor
Promotion should not be based on time in the job but on competency . There are too many employees promoted beyond their capabilities, which is why these public sector organizations are dysfunctional .
Sure, competency also comes from training-up and managing your team, not necessarily from cherry-picking newbie successors because they share your offline hobbies. It’s extremely discouraging that successive CoPs advance their European brothers and stoke discretionary dysfunction within a critical public service entity.
Forget about the promotions, any thought given to trying to improve the quality of the police force?
That is central to this complaint. CoP would sooner promote his cherry-picked to patch over gaps, than mentor and support the entire team, even those who have served for years and may still be waiting longer to be incorporated into the functional unit. It’s really sad.
With the way the criminals are running around,crime is rampant, drivers are disregarding so many road laws I can not see why any of them need any promotions. Get this little island cleaned up and then we can talk about promotion and raises but right now it looks like you are slacking off on the job. Don’t like it then resign.
The dice are always loaded for some untouchables in the Cayman Islands.
Police officers being promoted to what? To do what exactly?
Judge I support your decision!!
Think there should be some demotions.
Ignores traffic, silent on unheard of levels of crime, dismissed internal bias and division, all of these “he sees fit” discretionary red flags point to a CoP that needs replacement asap.
You haven’t been promoted to the next rank because you are useless at the rank you are currently at! It isn’t hard! The rest of us don’t get promoted for doing nothing
you clearly don’t work in government
I work in government and this is why I know exactly what is going on. It is the same in every department, in every ministry.
People who are incompetent are promoted again and again, and then are in charge of making decisions, about other staff who are also useless. Anyone with any semblance of a brain or work ethic tries hard for a while, then realize it is a sh*t show from top to bottom, and they leave.
He is promoting his cherry-picked favorites, not those putting in the time and work. Ie the promotions are disconnected from merit, based on service history and loyalty. Boys clubs like these erode morale and performance (if you can imagine it getting worse). Managerial red flags.