Top cop candidate’s integrity questioned

UPDATE:

AT least one candidate for the position of Commissioner of Police has been the subject of an intense investigation by the Police Complaints Authority (PCA), the authority’s director David West revealed yesterday during the Special Select Committee on the nomination of a Police Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner.

Responding to questions from committee chairman Fitzgerald Hinds at Parliament yesterday, West said a formal complaint was made against one of the candidates identified only as “Candidate F”, in September 2011 and an official investigation was launched by the PCA in November that year.

West said the complaint was made against the officer which amounted to “serious police misconduct”, and the investigation was completed in October last year, which resulted in recommendations for disciplinary actions being sent to the Police Service Commission.

Committee member and opposition MP Roodal Moonilal remarked on the length of time for the investigation’s completion and asked why such a routine procedure took so long. West said he only assumed the role as PCA Director in 2014 and blamed the period on severe staff shortage and heavy backlog of cases. He also said conflicts in how to proceed with the matter may have led to the investigation being delayed.

“In 2014 when I became the director, we had over 1,556 complaints. We had roughly 20 investigators and these are divided into different teams to look at different cases for different years. There were issues with that file in terms of disagreements on how we should proceed. Instructions were given to do certain things and they were not carried out in a timely fashion,” West said. He added that assistance from deputy director Michelle Solomon-Baksh in remodelling the system for reviewing cases and reducing the backlog, allowed the investigation to be completed. West also said that Candidate F was among 11 candidates whose information was sought by the Police Service Commission.

Moonilal sought to question West’s involvement in a “public matter” with another candidate identified as “Candidate K” and to ask if West saw it fit to recuse himself from his investigation of this candidate, as it could be considered a conflict of interest. However, chairman Hinds intervened before West could answer and said the matter was not relevant to the issues at hand.

ORIGINAL STORY:

At least one candidate for the position of Commissioner of Police has been the subject of an intense investigation by the Police Complaints Authority (PCA).

This was revealed by the authority's Director David West during this morning's Special Select Committee on the nomination of a Police Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner.

Responding to questions from Committee Chairman Fitzgerald Hinds at Parliament yesterday, West said a formal complaint was made against one of the candidates identified only as "Candidate F", in September 2011 and an official investigation was launched by the PCA in November that year.

West explained the complaint was made against the officer which amounted to "serious police misconduct", and the investigation was completed in October last year, which resulted in recommendations for disciplinary actions sent to the Police Service Commission.