Stemming domestic violence among police officers

By Aaron Humes: Since the start of this year, a number of police officers have been taken before the courts, charged with domestic violence incidents against their significant others.

But as sometimes happens with these cases, they are dropped by the complainant. One recent case saw a woman accuse her common-law husband, a police officer, of allegedly pepper spraying her and beating her with a baton. The case fell apart after the woman refused to continue the case.

According to Commissioner of Police Chester Williams, referring to the recent case, policy in the Department is that officers accused of domestic offences are interdicted from duty pending the result of both criminal and internal disciplinary investigations and hearings. Where the criminal prosecution is discontinued, he said, it ties the department’s hands in terms of moving forward.

“I am not even sure if we will be able to proceed internally with the matter because we will be requiring the testimony of the wife or the common law. If it is that she no longer wishes to pursue the matter then she may be reluctant to even come forward. Yes, we have had instances where the spouse may request no court action and we still proceed internally but that is only in situations where the police may have witnessed certain things occurring, so it goes then under the Act of Principle, Order, and Discipline which we can convict without the testimony of the spouse,” Commissioner Williams explained.

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