Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade’s recent comments where he credits the current administration’s newly revamped Urban Renewal programme with helping to reduce serious crime in the country are not sitting well with the former prime minister who yesterday called the commissioner’s actions “inappropriate.”
Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham yesterday accused the commissioner of backpedaling from a previous position he once held on the Progressive Liberal Party’s (PLP) highly touted social programme.
The programme, which the Christie administration views as a cornerstone of its crime fighting initiative, was discontinued when the Free National Movement (FNM) was elected to office in 2007.
While hinting at private conversations he had as prime minister with the commissioner of police regarding Urban Renewal, Mr. Ingraham suggested that the commissioner previously held an unfavourable position on the programme.
“To have a commissioner of police who now has a new tone – who tells us this story about what a wonderful thing is happening, these are not the things he told me when I was in office about Urban Renewal. These are not the same stories. But, maybe I was mistaken then, but my eyes are clear now,” he said.
The former prime minister refused to disclose the content of these alleged talks with the commissioner, but he did tell reporters that if Commissioner Greenslade publicly responds to his remarks, he would then reveal the information.
Mr. Ingraham’s hammering of the commissioner’s stance on Urban Renewal comes days after another senior member of his former administration accused Mr. Greenslade of “political posturing.”
Former State Minister for Finance Minister Zhivargo Laing on Wednesday questioned whether Mr. Greenslade was pressured by the current administration to make those remarks.
The controversy started after the commissioner released the Royal Bahamas Police Force’s (RBPF) latest crime stats Monday that show a six per cent drop in serious crime.
“Urban Renewal 2.0 is really providing good results for us,” Mr. Greenslade said at that time. “We had a very difficult period in the beginning of the year and we see now a distinct change as to what is happening.”
However, the former prime minister defended his administration’s efforts to curb crime in the country and he insisted that under his watch, all the necessary resources were made available to the RBPF to aid in the fight against crime.
“The commissioner’s remarks are most inappropriate,” he said. “He [the commissioner] had all the tools he needed to do the job. There was never a request from the police that was not honoured… in fact, we gave the police more than they asked for and so today, the police are fully resourced.”
Commissioner Greenslade could not be reached for comment.
