It is noteworthy that the language of the Commissioner of Police and Attorney General has recently featured the rebuilding of trust between the public and the Royal Barbados Police Force.
The police’s image has not only taken a battering as a result of two British rape victims’ insistence that the wrong man was arrested and charged for a crime against them, but this episode has compounded a long-running disconnect between the Police Force and those in the lowest socio-economic bracket.
Issues ranging from homes being ransacked and searched in the dead of night, instances of accused men dying while in police custody, and the ubiquitous confession statements that have in many cases been the only nexus between the accused and the crime, have combined over the years to create a sense of distrust that has proven difficult to repair despite the presence of police outposts in numerous communities across Barbados.
While we certainly laud efforts to intensify community policing in repressed areas like New Orleans, along with Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite’s piloting of legislation this week to assist in such sterling efforts, we cannot help but wonder how soon will equally important trust-building safeguards such as pre-court legal aid to accused persons who cannot afford lawyers, and the video recording of statements from suspects, will be implemented.
On the matter of legal aid, raised in Parliament on Tuesday by Minister of Housing Michael Lashley, Brathwaite admitted that fairness indeed required counsel to be made available to an accused person before he or she is charged.
Brathwaite, whose introduction of a $500 000 resolution for police emoluments to Parliament had been punctuated by promises to rebuild the moral fabric of Barbados, also pledged to continue looking at the issue of public counsel upon arrest, but noted there would be costs attached to this.
Regarding confession statements, also raised by Lashley, an attorney of nearly 15 years’ standing, Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin recently noted the need for a more scientific approach to gathering evidence, including recordings, since Barbadians had reacted negatively over time toward confessions purportedly written and signed by accused persons while in police custody.
Legislation for the electronic recording of evidence was passed in 2001, but to date none of the country’s police stations is adequately equipped for such a vital aspect of criminal investigation.
For the Commissioner of Police to be raising such an issue – though it was described as “very late” by Lashley – may well mean that he wants the embattled Police Force to be a better entity upon his exit and an organization of which average Barbadians can be justly proud.
