Minister of National Security, the Hon. Wayne Munroe is defending his stance that the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) can investigate any suspected wrongdoing by its officers. His comments come while police are carrying out investigations into corruption claims involving Chief Superintendent Michael Johnson.

While fielding questions from members of the media, Munroe responded to an article carried in the Nassau Guardian which cited comments he previously made in an interview with Our News in 2020 stating that an independent body should be established to investigate police involved killings.

Munroe told reporters, “if they would listen at length to what I’ve been saying for thirty years since I came back from the UK in 1990 is that you ought not to have any agency that investigates itself without independent oversight. And so it you listen to that interview you would hear me mentioning INDECOM in Jamaica but fundamentally if you say a crime has been committed unless you’re gonna take the position that you’re not going to prosecute the person at the end of the day the police will have to investigate it. So the issue is always what independent oversight is there.”

The Minister said in any organization there will be people who transgress the rules and the challenge is to have an effective system to address those who transgress the rules. “If you take the view of the performance of the Royal Bahamas Police Force over the decades they have consistently when they have found their members falling short charged them before the court. We have policemen right now charged before the court for homicides. And so that gives me faith that it is an institution that is committed to rooting out the bad apples.”

According to Munroe the government is working on legislation that will provide independent oversight of internal police investigations and are actively addressing the resource issues of the Police Complaints Inspectorate.

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