Three Years, No Insurance for Royal TCI Police?  Premier questioned…

By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, November 2, 2022 – Despite previous Government assurances to the contrary, insurance policies for police officers in the TCI may have lapsed as far back as 2019, that’s 3 years ago.  When queried about the issue on Financially Speaking hosted on Radio Turks and Caicos by Drexwell, Premier Washington Misick said this.

“First of all, the preexisting policy that they had, the Government is committed to making sure they have the same benefits [as]under that policy.”

The Premier, on the show aired October 25, did not explicitly say that the policy for the police had lapsed, but went on to explain that he had been meeting with the Governor’s Office, under whose purview the police fall, to resolve the situation.

“I am meeting again with the DG, the Commissioner of the Police, and the Governor this week because they have shared with me a document from an insurance company based on their regional membership of police organizations that will be able to cover them, and we’re in the process of reviewing, and the plan is to activate that.”

Whether this rush to activate means the policy is in fact inactive was not confirmed.

The issue of insurance has become a hot button topic since the flare up of violence in the last two months.  The public has been repeatedly calling for better benefits for the police as the islands experience what may very well be the bloodiest season on record.

At least two officers have been injured this year, one of them in a hail of bullets from high powered weapons, the other facing off with a man Governor Nigel Dakin described as an “extremely violent local gang leader.”

Weeks prior to Tuesday’s interview, Deputy Premier E. Jay Saunders said he had been given assurances, by those responsible, that the police did in fact have insurance.  That statement, made on a previous episode of Financially Speaking was challenged and forced the host to ask again, this time of the country Premier.

“I think the police know that I am doing everything I can to make sure that they are properly looked after.   At the moment, we want our police officers to have high morale, because they have very demanding jobs.”