Local police force labelled as undisciplined

A former assistant commissioner of police has pointed to a serious lack of discipline, which he said is giving life to a plethora of problems within the police force. Nuffield Burnette, who has served as head of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), made the assertion yesterday during an interview on OBSERVER AM.
He warns that if the indiscipline continues it will impact the police’s ability to fight crime. “When there is indiscipline, there are all sorts of problems. I have seen police officers wearing red, blue and green at election time, these things ought not to be.
In times gone by these things could not happen. Now, you see it in broad daylight. “We need to pay attention to fixing the force in terms of the level of integrity, the level of corruption and all these kind of things. Then we can focus on fighting crime,” Burnette said.
The retired police officer also intimated that in order for the force to become more disciplined, “bad eggs” need to be weeded out, and this will take strong leadership from within the Royal Police Force of Antigua and Barbuda, as well as on the part of the government.
Aside from the removal of “bad eggs,” the usually outspoken senior officer also recommended changes for the constabulary. He said that the issue of recruitment of police officers is a major problem.
(More in today’s Daily Observer)