TYNIA BROWN
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

There have been recent reports of law enforcement officers being taken before the courts.
Bahamian civilians are now raising concern about the vetting process for people who are being
recruited into law enforcement agencies.
One recent incident involved Constable Randy Hanna, who was suspended from active duty after
he was charged with stealing and fraud by false pretenses. Prosecutors allege that Hanna, 28, stole a Toyota Passo, worth $4,500, from Wellington Gray in April 2024. Hanna allegedly sold the vehicle to Kiron Seymour in June 2024.

The prosecutor Sergeant 2257 Wilkinson asked the court to impose signing conditions and
prohibit Hanna from contacting witnesses in the case. The matter has been adjourned to October
29 for trial.

Another incident concerned a corrections officer who currently is behind bars after prosecutors
say she conspired to commit to murder. Prosecutors allege that 21-year-old Shante Taylor plotted
the July 20th murder of Elvardo Thompson. Tears streamed down Taylor’s face when she stood
before Chief Magistrate Roberto Reckley. She didn’t have to enter a plea and was denied bail.
Taylor is back in court on January 30 to receive voluntary bill of indictment papers. Taylor was
denied bail while bail was set at $9,500 for Rolle.

Then there was the case of two immigration officers who according to the Tribune 242 were
granted bail on October 2023 after they were allegedly caught in a bribery scheme to extend
foreign nationals passports and visas in The Bahamas.

 Magistrate Shaka Serville charged Chief Immigration Officer Wyberg Brown, 50,
Immigration Officer Thorn Curry, 30, and civilian Avery Francis, 30, with bribery and
conspiracy to commit bribery. The defendants are accused of bribing immigration officers to
get extensions on the Jamaican passports of Shaquera Anderson, Sasha Burke and Sasheen
Thomas on October 11.

After the three defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges, they were informed that their bail
would be set at $4,000 with one or two sureties each.
Back in 2023 a Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) officer accused of rape was granted
$9,900 bail during an emergency hearing. Prosecutors say Valdez Lopez, 41, sexually assaulted a
28-year-old woman on July 11 2023.
At the time a condition of his bail, Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson ordered Lopez to surrender
his travel documents and not to come within 100 feet of his alleged victim. He also had to sign in
at the East Street South Police Station. Lopez has been interdicted from his duties pending the
resolution of his case.
He was scheduled to appear before Acting Chief Magistrate Roberto Reckley to receive a
voluntary bill of indictment that will fast-track his case to the Supreme Court for trial.
In 2021 a customs officer was arrested and charged for smuggling drugs into the country.

Quabinor Campbell, 41, of Yellow Elder, is accused of involvement in two shipments of
marijuana from Canada into the country. He denied the charges and was granted $24,000 bail. He
returned to court in September of that year for trial.

DEU officers seized marijuana hidden in canned tomatoes and go-go squeeze pouches at
Customs on January 13, 2021.

On December 29, 2020, they allegedly seized 9.6 pounds of marijuana hidden inside canned
goods. The drugs had a combined value of $216,000.
Considering all the controversy Minister of National Security Wayne Munroe says that his team
is working put tighter measures in place regarding the recruitment process.
“Even good people do bad things, so we must have systems that can control that and that is what
we are working at perfecting as close as we can. The issue is for proper civilian oversight of a
process for transparency reasons, for public confidence reasons and we’ve been working on that
since I took the chair.”

Munroe also said that there is a security forces inspectorate bill that will be out for consultation
soon. There was a meeting with incoming chairman and there were discussions about where that
body should go in terms of strengthening independent oversight.
“You vet as well as you can. “You look at persons whether they have a criminal record, and the
police have the ability to vet and see every contact you’ve had with the police, because it is
entered up in their system.”

Munroe also states that this a good measure and we must remember that war broke out in heaven.