With thirty-two years of policing to his credit, five of which he served as Commissioner of the Royal Anguilla Police Force, Mr. Daniel Rudolph Proctor’s long career has ended. The date of demitting office is Friday, July 10.
That is when he will officially hand over command of the Force to the new Commissioner, Mrs. Amanda Stewart, at a ceremony on the grounds of Police Headquarters commencing at 5.00 pm. Mrs. Stewart has been recruited from the Northern Ireland Police Force where she has had over thirty years of experience.
Mr. Proctor, who is only fifty years old, rapidly ascended through the ranks of the Force to become, in 2010, Anguilla’s 7th Commissioner since the island took over responsibility for law and order from the London Metropolitan Police in 1972.
While Mr. Proctor will now return to family and community life, he told media representatives, at his last press conference on Wednesday, that he expects to devote much of his time to legal studies. He has already achieved much success in some of the necessary prerequisites despite his previous busy schedule as Commissioner of Police. He is now hoping to race through those studies with the same enthusiasm and commitment he demonstrated during his rise through the Force.
Jovial, yet calm, he told the media representatives: “I can certainly say it was thirty-years that I enjoyed…but there were a lot of challenges especially in the last five years of my career.”
My Proctor continued: “I have had some good cooperation from members of the public but, I must say, as an Anguillian, who has risen to this position, that many times I felt disappointed in terms of the public support that the police and I received. There were times when violence was at its peak, and there were persons in our society who were key to bringing that sort of violent activity to a halt but refused to do so. When one heard the clarion call that we needed somebody from somewhere else, it made me wonder why should we need someone from somewhere else to solve problems that are clearly ours. To me, it shows a clear weakness that we, as a people, have not arrived. I say, with no apology, that if we want to be strong, as a people for the future, we must give some more respect to our own. I have said this at a press briefing: ‘if opportunity shows itself in Timbuktu, take it. You will probably get more praise there than here.”’
After giving a more extended overview of his work and the functions of the Royal Anguilla Police Force, Proctor went on: “I leave on Friday, God spare life, without any regret for the actions and decisions that I have taken as Commissioner of Police. If we think that there is a quick fix to Anguilla’s problems by changing the Commissioner of Police, or changing any other Police Officer, let me be the first to say that it has to start with the change of attitude of how we look at each other; how we respect each other.
“That is what is lacking in our community. We are scarce of role models, in our communities, who would reach out to those who are perpetrating criminal activity against our people at every level. We, ourselves, and our responses to our brothers and sisters, need to see what signals we are sending to our young men and women who are perpetrating violence in this society. I also want to be the first to say that we are not too far gone in criminal activity not to be able to reverse the situation. But it is going to take more than the Police Force to do that. All agencies in this island …need to rise to the occasion to deal with these situations. We have cases here where parents are outsourcing their responsibilities to the Police Force, social development, schools and, in some instances, churches. Parents have to be parents…and once family networks are strong, they can raise good children. So, as I said, we are not too far gone to reverse some of this criminal activity.”
While Mr. Proctor admitted that he has had some degree of rivalry and discontent within his Department, he indicated that he had become both disappointed and fed up with the attitude of members of the public. He felt the police could have had more successes in crime detection and prosecution had there been a greater degree of cooperation from persons having knowledge of the criminals, but withheld the information.
He vowed he would take the lead in reporting any crime and offenders he may witness as he returns to family and community life. He took the opportunity of his last press conference to say goodbye to all members of the public.
