Premier silent so far on failings exposed in a Royal TCI Police Review

Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer 

#TurksandCaicosIslands, October 19, 2023 – No word has come from the government regarding reported failures unearthed from an alleged UK investigation into the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force.

Magnetic Media reached out to the Premier’s Office on October 17th, hours after The Guardian broke the news that the RTCIPF had been described as ‘overwhelmed by the crime wave experienced by residents in 2022.’

We attempted to find out if the Premier had prior knowledge of the review and subsequent report or had seen a copy of the document which reportedly lays out allegations of mismanagement and corruption.

However, no response was shared with the news team up to news production time.

Washington Misick, TCI Premier has defended the police and Trevor Botting, Police Commissioner in the past.

In a September 2022 press conference in response to Magnetic Media queries, Misick blamed ‘gut reaction and emotion’ as the reason why TCI residents were displeased with the Commissioner’s performance after calls for his resignation were shared online.

“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, in that press conference continued with, “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.”

Trevor Botting’s contract was not renewed by Dileeni Daniel Selvaratnam, the newest TCI Governor who in her own response to The Guardian article highlighted the commissioner’s imminent departure and said,

“A key focus of my recruitment of [the commissioner’s] successor will be the reinforcement of policing standards and a strong ethical framework of conduct and performance for the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force.”

Despite our queries, the Governor did not disclose whether she had seen the full report.

Selvaratnam also did not say whether that Review had at all factored into the decision to advertise the top cop’s job.

UPDATED: October 23, 2023