‘Never more than a week’ says TCI Premier on Police Record Turn Around

By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, October 28, 2022 – ‘Embarrassing’ is how Washington Misick, Turks and Caicos Islands Premier is describing the extreme delays in getting a police record on the islands. He discussed the issue in conversation with Drexwell Seymour on Financially Speaking which aired on RTC on October 25th.

“What I could say to you straight off the bat is that it’s extremely embarrassing to have to answer this question, it should never be the case.”

The ‘case’ is the reported months-long wait for police records that residents say have been going since last year. A fix for the issue was promised in February after it was revealed demand for the records had increased 400% since the advent of online applications. Understaffing was pegged as the issue then and police had promised to get it under control in a matter of weeks.

Months after that, in August, Harold Charles, Governor’s Appointed Member to the House of Assembly announced he had received assurances from the police that the issue would be fixed within weeks.

“There should be no excuse for why we shouldn’t be able to turn around a police record in a limited period of time, we should be aiming at 48 hours; it would never take more than a week,” offered the premier.

In addition he said some services require a police record unnecessarily contributing to the backlog but maintained that the people responsible and who interface with the process every day should be allowed to speak to the public.

“I think it’s time for the public to call out some of the people who are themselves responsible for the delivery and working on these things,” said Premier Misick.

He also admitted that workers need tools that the government had not yet provided including the e-governance system.

He did not give a date for a concrete fix on the problem.