Following the forced retirement of the Deputy Commissioner and two Assistant Commissioners, five more Assistant Commissioners of Police have received letters demanding that they take vacation leave with immediate effect.
The five include Officer in charge of Criminal Investigation ACP Clayton Fernander, Officer in Charge of Uniformed Officers ACP Ashton Greenslade, Officer in Charge of Operational Support ACP Ken Strachan, Officer in Charge of Public Safety ACP Leamond Deleveaux, and the officer in charge of the Police Tribunal ACP Theophulus Cunningham.
At the end of the vacations it is not clear if the officers will have to retire, as in the case of DPC Emerik Seymour , ACP Stephen Dean and ACP Clarence Reckley who were told two weeks ago that they were to take their long vacations and retire.
The decision came as a shock to the officers, but it is understood that the high command were informed by the Minister of National Security Marvin Dames that the government wanted all officers with accumulated vacations to take them.
When questioned on the issue by the media yesterday, Mr. Dames said that there will be more cases like these to come.
He added that there are quite a number of officers throughout the ranks with an excessive amount of vacation leave which successive governments have allowed to pile up.
“The fact is that we find that in law enforcement the problem is greater, but we’re trying to bring everything back in line.
“Now there are some persons whose leave will run into retirement, but they understand that,” he said.
The Minister added that this move is all a part of transforming the force and admitted that government must do a better job at preparing officers for leave.
“We need to get to the place where we empower people, where we develop people, so that when we’re not there somebody else takes over.
“We’re all just passing through, we met these agencies here and we will leave them here too.
“The test is in what condition we leave them in when we move off the scene, but we’re talking about individuals, the majority of whom are on leave, who have in excess of a year and in some cases as close to two years of vacation,” The Minister said.
A statement from the Chairman of the Progressive Liberal Party Fred Mitchell yesterday said, “there is a political purge taking place in the Royal Bahamas Police Force and throughout the public service. This is an attempt to eliminate all PLPs from the public service. The FNM’s actions are wicked and evil and are condemned,” said Mr. Mitchell.
