Assistant police commissioner recruited from UK

| 06/09/2024 | 37 Comments
ACP Robert Atkin

(CNS): The Police Service Commission (PSC) has appointed a former officer from London’s Metropolitan Police Service to a leadership job in the RCIPS. Robert Atkin MBE is the new assistant commissioner of police (ACP), a rank that has not existed since about 2007. It is immediately below the position of deputy commissioner, currently held by Anthony Ennis, who was the first person to be given the rank of ACP in 2003 before he was promoted to his current position in 2005.

Governor Jane Owen, who chairs the PSC, said she was pleased to see the appointment of “a highly experienced and capable candidate… who brings years of policing expertise”.

Commissioner of Police Kurt Walton congratulated and welcomed Atkin on his selection and said he looked forward to working closely with him on developing plans to deliver on the recently released RCIPS Strategic Policing Plan 2024-2026.

“We have much work to do, and ACP Atkin’s experience and expertise will no doubt offer fresh perspectives on how we can tackle the tasks ahead of us,” Walton said.

Despite the accolades from the governor, the police commissioner and other government officials in a press release about the former Met chief superintendent, in 2020, a UK policing misconduct panel found he had breached the standards of professional behaviour.

“The panel considered Chief Supt Atkin made unwise decisions and showed poor judgment rather than displaying deliberate wrong-doing and therefore the breaches proven were at the level of misconduct and not gross misconduct.”

The allegations resulted from his efforts to promote the professional development of a female officer with whom he was in a personal relationship. It was also alleged that he showed the officer the assessment papers with the intention of providing her with an unfair advantage.

According to the Police Professional magazine, the MPS misconduct panel that heard his case found that he had “breached the standards of professional behaviour in respect of authority, respect and courtesy, and this was at the level of misconduct”.

The press release from the PSC about Atkin’s appointment did not mention this blip on the veteran officer’s career, nor did it mention other candidates. CNS asked for information on whether or not any local officers had applied for the new role and the commission simply told us that there were local applicants in the recruitment process.

The release said that Atkin began his policing career with the MPS in 1990. In 2014, he became chief superintendent, and took over as commander for aviation policing in 2016. He was appointed commander for the MPS’s Specialist Firearms Department in 2018. He went on to lead recruitment for the MPS, before becoming the commander for Southeast London in 2020.

In May 2021, Atkin transferred to the City of London Police, where he was responsible for HQ services. His final job there was directorate head, responsible for all uniform policing operations and departments.

“Being appointed as Assistant Commissioner of Police for the RCIPS is an honour and privilege. I look forward to working across the RCIPS units to ensure our staff have the absolute best leadership, support and care so they can do their best job for our communities,” he said.

CNS: This article has been corrected. It originally said that the position of ACP was new and that Atkin was the first person to hold it.


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Category: Crime, Police

Comments (37)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Be lucky guvnor. Do wot? Ave it sahn! Apples n’ pears!

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  2. Anonymous says:

    Reminder RCIP do not report to elected Cabinet MPs. Only input MPs have is when it comes to RCIP budget.

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  3. anonymous says:

    Similar to education there are way too many Jamaican nationals on the police force and from what i hear giving our new Commissioner a warm time. There is cartel that calls the shots and similar to education continue to bring their pals (who cover for them) into the force. We need a mix of nationalities – stop with hiring predominantly West Indian Cops who come here with corruption in mind – similar to where they came from.
    Thank you Madam Governor for seeing the warning signs and supporting our new Commissioner by giving his support

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  4. Who Knew says:

    Just an FYI. Anthony Ennis was actually the first officer to hold the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police.

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  5. Anonymous says:

    While I don’t know the true intentions of the decision makers, it is disappointing that there were no Caymanian police officers selected to step up into the Deputy Commissioner role.

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  6. Anonymous says:

    Given the positions he’s held in the MPS, I’d say we are lucky to have him.

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  7. Elvis says:

    Should fit in well from what I’ve read already about him .

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  8. Anonymous says:

    Hmm? A MET eject? Perhaps the MBE swayed them.

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  9. Anonymous says:

    The UK’s confidence in a Caymanian led RCIPS didn’t last long, did it?

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  10. Anonymous says:

    They find Braggs yet?

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  11. Anonymous says:

    ‘Mother’country will not be there to look after you very soon, Cayman better decide, Cayman Parliament or mire of the present morons and no Cayman! You have decide before next election.

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  12. Anonymous says:

    Enjoyed dancing with Police at Pirate’s Week, was good fun then!

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  13. Anonymous says:

    Seriously…the best they could get was a former Met officer with questionable integrity?!

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  14. Moi says:

    I wish him all the best. Truly. He will need it. Great ones got rid of without reason. Good luck, Sir.

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    • Anonymous says:

      The new Caymanian Commissioner of Police is good, served a long time but like all needs assistance and support. Let’s hope this guy with his experience can do and provide that and not look on it as another retirement vacation as the Governors useless role for years.

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  15. Anonymous says:

    we need more european/canadians and less west indians in the force…
    sorry for the honesty.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Hopefully they will set an example of first world policing standards to our Caribbean police who are there just for a paycheck.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Too busy in their own countries with stabbings. Don’t expect everyone to come running to Cayman’s aid, deal with it!

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      • Anonymous says:

        I think you’ll find the stabbings are a media thing blown out of proportion. The real issue that concerns most UK residents would be that of anti-social behavior, and burglaries/thefts.

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        • Anonymous says:

          Families and friends may strongly disagree!

        • Anonymous says:

          The stabbings aren’t blown out of proportion. It’s a real problem in the UK. They seriously reduced stop and search and knife crime skyrocketed. The police in the UK are useless on many fronts. They aren’t even solving burglaries.

    • Anonymous says:

      I got stopped by a canadian officer several weeks ago. He was the nicest officer I have come across and even though I was wrong and I probably deserved a ticket he let me off with a warning and we had a nice discussion.

      It was the first good interaction I have had with the police in many many moons. I’m not saying it had anything to do with his nationality and perhaps it was just a coincidence. But we could use more of that.

      I wish the new Assistant Commissioner well on his new appointment.

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      • Anonymous says:

        I for one am certainly glad that he did a great job by allowing you to get away with breaking the law…??

        Not sure that I agree he is the type of officer we need to be importing. We already have plenty Jamaicans letting fellow countrymen off without tickets, and look where they has landed us. Literally the one feature we want and need our police to have is enforcing the laws.

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      • Anonymous says:

        That was a good experience eh!

  16. Anonymous says:

    Well, I sincerely hope he doesn’t bring the worst aspects of the MPS’s performance in recent years to the RCIPS; woke policies, standing aside and not enforcing the law to avoid confrontation with people performing illegal acts, dancing with protestors rather than policing them.

    I could go on.

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