TCI Premier Defends Police Commissioner amidst crime infested weekend

By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, September 16, 2022 – On Monday September 5, we asked the question which put the Turks and Caicos Islands Premier, Hon Washington Misick in a position to tell the nation precisely what he thought of Commissioner of Police, Trevor Botting who in recent months had his tenure as top cop extended.

The Premier defended Botting citing that he was anything but unsatisfied with Botting’s performance on the job and not prone to emotional swings on the issue of the commissioner’s competency.

“For the same reason that every time a gang member gets killed the police is blamed, that’s the kind of gut reaction, emotion, and [that’s] the reason why people are saying the commissioner has to go. They said that with the last commissioner, they’ve probably been saying it with the one before that.” The premier said.

He was speaking at a recent press conference to discuss the violence in Five Cays that left four people dead.

Misick said that in his position he could not afford to be so hasty and indicated that he would not be commenting on whether the commissioner would stay or go.

“I have to be very analytical I cannot knee jerk or react from emotion— The prevention and detection of crime is up to the whole community” he said

The premier stressed that as a society we have to face the mirror and deal with our own issues. He questioned what was wrong with the Turks and Caicos as a collective society that allowed certain things to happen.

The Premier said that regardless of talk as far as he knew Botting was doing good work.

“It’s not up to me to retain or not retain the commissioner but I personally In my dealings with the commissioner, I have no reason to believe that he is not doing his best working hard to build up the police force and to detect crime.”