Cop in St Vincent disciplined after Opposition Leader tours police station without authorisation

KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – A police corporal has been transferred to another station after he allowed Opposition Leader Dr Goodwin Friday and two other people to tour a rural police station earlier this year.

Acting Commissioner of Police Colin John confirmed that the incident occurred in July when Friday and his delegation visited the police station in Owia on the northeastern coast of the island and which is home to some of the island’s indigenous people.

Speaking on a radio programme John said that the decision to transfer the cop was his and that the unnamed officer had not followed proper police protocols.

“It is not because it was the Leader of the Opposition. There are certain areas in the police force that are out of bounds for members of the public. For members of the public to access that area, they must get the expressed permission of the commissioner of police,” John said, noting that among those areas is ‘the back of the station” presumably where people are held in cells.

“What was reported to me was the police officer was there on duty, the Leader of the Opposition and two other persons came there and they asked them to see the station. He allowed them in without seeking the approval of the Commissioner. They went there and took photos and things of that nature,” he said.

John said such actions could be a security breach.

“There are certain protocols regarding the organisation, coincidental that the person who visited the police station was the Leader of the Opposition. As I said, it is just protocol. You need to follow a certain protocol. You get the permission of the Commissioner of Police for such visits to take place."

John said he subsequently spoke to the police officer who “indicated that he did not know about what he was supposed to do.

“So, I told him, well, in the future, things like that, you know you have to clear it with the Commissioner,” he said, brushing aside a suggestion from the host of the radio programme that such a disciplinary measure would not have been taken had it been a government official who had toured the police station without the necessary clearance.

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