Mr. Victor Marshall
The regulations governing matters of conduct in the Royal Anguilla Police Force, now considered to be archaic, are being reviewed with the assistance of a top Police Adviser with the UK Government. He is Mr. Victor Marshall, OBE, who was just on the island.
The Anguillian newspaper met with both Anguilla’s Commissioner Mr Paul Morrison, and Mr. Marshall, to get an understanding of the specific nature of the visit of the Police Adviser who also had discussions with Governor Tim Foy, OBE.
Mr. Morrison explained that Mr. Marshall’s work was to “try to modernise our conduct regulations to make it easier, and more efficient, for the way in which conduct matters are dealt with. It is also to give greater reassurances and greater transparency to the public that these matters are handled in an ethical and fair way.”
Mr. Marshall, who introduced new police conduct procedures in Bermuda and is now looking at similar arrangements for the Turks & Caicos Islands, spoke about his work in Anguilla as follows:
“I have to say in the week that I have been here in Anguilla, I am very impressed with what I am seeing. For such a small community to deliver policing in the way that it is, I think is admirable. The work that I am very fortunate to have been asked to assist the Commissioner and the Governor with is building on that policing as well. This has to deal with public engagements, issues of performance and conduct. If there are officers who misbehave, they should be held in account. The work police officers do is complex, and quite challenging, but it is about learning and improving so that you get a better service. Certainly, what I am seeing is really positive – and my work will just complement that as part of the whole modernisation agenda for both the Commissioner and the Governor.”
Mr. Marshall, who also had discussions with the Deputy Governor and the Attorney General, continued: “It has all gone very well, and I have really had some good engagements from the officers and staff. I have also been asked to look at the Prison Service so I met with the Superintendent of Prisons in terms of how we can do things; and equally with the Chief of the Fire Service. I sense that there is a real energy for what we will have – which is the most modern system around complaints, performance handling and dealing with issues of misconduct in police forces in the Western World. We bring up policing [in Anguilla] to actually the standards that currently exist in the United Kingdom, Bermuda, the Isle of Man and other jurisdictions I have worked in. It is very exciting.”
The Police Adviser said that he would be working in close cooperation with the Professional Standards Department in Anguilla currently being manned by two officers appointed by Commissioner Morrison. “Professional standards are a crucial part of the organisation, so going forward I will have quite a lot of dealings with the professional standards side of policing because they [the two Royal Anguilla Police Officers] are the gatekeepers on behalf of the organisation,” he went on. “It is about promoting standards constantly in the police service so that officers get better and provide a better service in a modern system. Where you get an individual who, perhaps let the service down, to the extent that action is needed, in terms of misconduct, there will be a very robust but fair and timely system by which one or two officers who let the service down can be dealt with.”
Mr. Marshall explained that he was on an initial fact-finding mission in Anguilla: “I am going to write a report for the Commissioner, and the Governor, setting out my views on a new structure around complaints, discipline and performance. I will then write the rules around that structure, if that finds favour, and then the next phase will be to come to do some training for officers in professional standards for those who would administer the system.”
He further said: “There is a lot of support both the Commissioner driving this initiative, from the Governor’s Office – and likewise from the Prison Service and the Fire Service. Equally, if that is something they want me to do, then I am more than happy to do that. The same thing is going in the Turks & Caicos Islands, and Anguilla is in the forefront of wanting to modernise its system. That is really refreshing because it has worked really well in the jurisdictions where I served in. The desire from the Commissioner and the Governor here to drive this forward is really refreshing, as I said, for this nation and where it wants to be. It absolutely fits in with the modernisation agenda with policing in Anguilla.
Mr. Marshall added: “There are things I can do from the UK, and other things from Anguilla, and in time we could make some significant progress in a very short timeframe. Certainly, within the next few months, we could see some changes start to happen.”
