The Barbados Police Service (BPS) has launched an investigation into the alleged poor customer service provided to a Barbadian female who recently tried to report a shooting incident in Martins Road, Pinelands, St Michael.
Commissioner of Police Richard Boyce told the DAILY NATION yesterday he had seen the video where Donisha Best bemoaned the poor service allegedly provided by a male police constable. He said he was very concerned with what the young woman accused one of his officers of doing.
“The video would have caused major concern for members of the public. From the time I saw it, to me it speaks to unprofessionalism, if it is true, and that is something that we do not condone within this organisation,” Boyce said.
“I’ve launched an investigation into the matter and, however, it turns out, we will take the appropriate action. At this point it has been assigned to a senior lawman, a superintendent, to investigate,” he confirmed. Boyce did not reveal the name of the senior investigator.
In the video, Best spoke of concern she had for her mother’s welfare, claiming a fragment of a bullet had hit her mum in the face, before ending up on a sofa, after a shooting in the area. She showed the bullet fragment in the video as well.
Best also alleged that the policeman who answered 211 (police emergency line) was rude, hanging up on her twice as she tried to report the shooting.
Efforts yesterday to reach Best for a response to the Commissioner’s comments on the matter proved unsuccessful.
Boyce said he would not want to prejudice the investigation into the actions of one of his officers, but made it clear that should the policeman be found guilty of what Best has alleged, the offending officer would be disciplined, as it was against the rules and regulations of the Barbados Police Service.
The Commissioner was also asked if calls by members of the public into police stations across the country were recorded for quality assurance purposes, but he chose not to comment on the matter, because of its sensitivity.
However, Boyce said the service takes training methodologies and the training of its officers very seriously.
“There is an ongoing process where we do customer training for our officers. That is something we’ve had in place for some time now because we believe that, in engaging members of the public, we should have a cutting-edge policy. Customer service is a high-priority engagement for us,” he added.
“We want all of our officers up to speed in terms of engaging with the public in a humane manner and with a high level of professionalism,” the veteran cop said.
The Commissioner did reveal that although the training of officers was an ongoing process, it had been temporarily suspended in December as they conducted the annual Operation Yuletide programme, which utilised all members of the constabulary over the Christmas period.
“Early in the new year, we will continue with that customer training to deal with any quality assurance issues we have,” he said.
Boyce said that, in general, he remained concerned about the public perception of customer service provided by police and if it was below average.
“Even one complaint is too much. Sometimes things go out of whack in dealing with members of the public in a humane fashion.
“I can’t say complaints are more than normal but we are at the time of the year when we do our review of complaints we receive from members of the public. In a week, we should be able to look at the numbers and do a comparison.”