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What Commissioner Boyce said about the slapping video in August 2024 – Source: Starcom.

Commissioner of Police Richard Boyce promised to watch and report back to Barbadians on a video that was being circulated which showed a policeman slapping a bystander on Kadooment Day 2024. It is 242 days that have elapsed since his empty promise, see video on the BU sidebar.

David with all due respect you forgotten the most important factor which is that of trust of the police force. What happens when a member of constabulary is shown in public as a thug. Why is custom allowed not to account for the extravagant lifestyles. When are persons ungrateful in high risk security areas not required along with politicians required to undergo lie detector testing.

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ONE OF THE TRUEST STATEMENT OF FACTS EVER ON BU.

– BU Commenter

The inability of Commissioner Boyce to honour his promise to Barbadians makes anyone wonder if it has contributed to a decline in anonymous tips to CRIME STOPPERS. Tips to CRIME STOPPERS declined from 273 in 2023 to 239 in 2024. More surprisingly is that tips made directly to the BPS decline from 71 to 37. At a time when the country is grappling to manage a high-crime environment, the significant decline in anonymous crime reporting should be of huge concern. The current state of affairs exposes the urgent need for enhanced community policing.

One of the most popular refrains used by the BPS public relations personnel is – the BPS is asking members of the public to come forward to share any information connected with a crime.

If the BPS is serious about nurturing the trust factor with the public, a good place to start is at the top.

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18 responses to “Public trust in police on the decline”

  1. David Avatar
    David

    Outrage over police shooting

    By Josué Ramiréz Nelson

    josuenelson@nationnews.com

    Residents of Kendal, St John, are enraged over the police-involved shooting of an 18-year-old boy that occurred on Thursday night.

    Some are charging that police acted recklessly when they opened fire on a group of youngsters liming by the Kendal community centre and injuring Daquan Elcock in the process.

    According to police reports, about 7:20 p.m. a patrol team encountered a group of people in the area. Lawmen said the group opened fire and, fearing for their lives, the officers returned fire.

    Daquan, who was grazed, complained of injuries and was subsequently taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital where he was treated and discharged. Reports are that a firearm was recovered at the scene.

    Shortly after being discharged, Daquan was taken into police custody. His family say they will be seeking legal counsel in handling the matter.

    However, some residents and others who said they witnessed the incident are disputing the police’s version. They claimed that none of the youngsters had a gun, and that they only heard one shot which they strongly believe came from police.

    “You hear them saying that somebody shot at them and they returned fire, but still everybody in the community only heard one shot,” Curtis Drakes told the Saturday Sun yesterday.

    “The one shot was from the police gun; that’s what got everyone puzzled and then next minute they recovered a gun.”

    Mario Corbin said he too heard a single gunshot on the night, at which point he sprang to his feet and looked outside his window to see police cordoning off the area.

    Popular meeting place

    “This is the first time I ever experienced this. We don’t really have any kind of trouble around here. The boys just sit down and breeze under the shed. Those little men are quiet, they just there breezing,” he said.

    The area where the lawmen converged was a shed at the Kendal Community Centre that serves as a popular meeting place for youth in the area. Residents said the youngsters often spend their leisure either listening to music or roasting breadfruit.

    Some residents recalled seeing Daquan dismount from a bus, returning from his regular skills training classes, and joining the group at the shed before heading home. It was only a short time later that police vehicles came on the scene.

    “I saw two vans pass, then I heard one shot,” said one resident, who declined to be identified. “They were listening to music, the police pulled up, stopped to talk to them and they ran. They held two and Daquan ran and caught a bullet to his chest; it was graze that didn’t penetrate. Now this morning we are hearing that the youngsters were shooting at them.

    “I live right next to the block. One shot was fired, one single shot. If the fellows opened fire on them you would hear more than one gunshot. Everyone in the area is angry. He is being [accused of] something he did not do,” he declared.

    Another man who also spoke of hearing only one gunshot lamented that when he stepped outside to see the commotion, he was aggressively confronted by police, who drew guns on him and searched him. He was dressed in only his boxers.

    Well-mannered lad “Last night was the first time for six years in Kendal that I ever see a police jeep or hear a gunshot. I get as far as my garbage can and I heard three police telling me get down. I asked them to give me an explanation why and that I just came out to see what happened. From there I’m on the ground, hands down and getting searched in my boxers, on the ground,” he recalled.

    Many in the neighbourhood described Daquan as a quiet and well-mannered lad, while his mother Danielle Elcock said he is a hardworking person who is home by 9 p.m. and up early to help his father sell coconuts.

    She said she was home watching TV with her family when she heard the sound of a gunshot.

    Concerned, she asked her brother Dario Moore to confirm that Daquan was not outside. Moore said he picked up his phone and called his nephew who responded that he had been shot by police.

    The mother said doctors told her the bullet was a few inches short of being fatal.

    “I lost a son to cancer, and he was three years old, in 2015. Daquan is the only boy child I have besides my five-year-old daughter. I ran from in the house, all of us. My brother and Daquan’s father run up the road, and police pull guns on them and tell them get down, and kneel down in their back, asking them their name. I there bawling. I up on the ground. I’m holding my belly and they’re telling me get back, get back.

    “My son was there with a 13-year-old, 16-year-old, another that is about the same age as him, 18. This is children that he born, rambled and grew up with. All they do is learn how to drive and play games, mechanics, whatever,” she said.

    Danielle said Daquan was still healing from the graze to his chest and was feeling slight plain and stiffness from the fall he sustained when he fled and tripped on a log.

    “At this moment, he is moving around but his hand is kind of stiff, and he is in pain, but he’s just in shock because he can’t believe that he could leave home, go on the block with his friends and could just get shoot at,” she cried.

    Source: Nation

  2. Class of 1980 Avatar
    Class of 1980

    TBPS needs to rid these patrols of ghost guns and weed out these thugs. As a former officer I am afraid if this is not checked war between the police and the citizens will eventually break out. Sadly the blue wall of silence will continue and the forensics procedure of checking for gunshot residue to ascertain who fired will not happen. Barbados is in a bad place. Erwin as acting COP you need to do what is right and ensure you correct the slide in respect and trust of the police as your legacy as a pre retirement legacy.

  3. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    The whole world is infected with square pegs in the wrong holes.
    From TOP to bottom….

    If this does not tell us something… NOTHING will!

    What a time to be alive!!

  4. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ David
    The blame game no longer works. We have waited forty years to determine that crime is the country’s problem and not that of any government or Attorney General. Just ten years ago it was the government’s and AG’s problem. We sow what we reap.
    Time to abandon the crap.
    There was a time when almost any policeman of high office had a nicname , that was because of familiarity with the public. In more sophisticated terms it was really community policing. Those days may never return but not having more police presence in the community -that’s what we call on the ground these days, is the major issue.
    Anybody growing up in close proximity to a police station knew the officers; ran errands for them and the officers knew the families . Familiarity bred respect and that respect lessened fear and crime could be monitored easier and wayward youth usually fell into line.
    Forty years allowing the ZRs to be come a subculture; forty years ignoring the problems with our education system and we could go on but it would not matter.
    How can we manage crime in a small country with a shortage of over two hundred police. Add to that shortage political interference and we have the perfect recipe for disaster.
    First step ; increase the force by three hundred over the next five years. Then engage in rapid replacements for retirees and maintain a progressive community presence and we may sees a better effort. Now that it has taken a seasoned elder parliamentarian to realise that “guns don’t walk or talk.
    Time to dump the politics and deal with the crime methodologically.

  5. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    ” we reap what we sow.”

  6. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    You know I always have a story. A couple of weeks ago, my eighty year old father was being driven by his sixty-seven year old wife when they were pulled over by police. Apparently, the lightbulb that illuminates the license plate was blown. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think one can leave home with it working and have it go out whilst driving.

    To this brain-dead policeman however, this was an offence of the highest order. Clearly these seniors were attempting to conceal their identities! His uncouthness in speaking to
    my father’s wife, who is old enough to be his mother, caused my father to intervene, upon which this officer, hot on the trail of discovering some serious senior criminals on their way to committing a crime, instructed my father to be quiet as he was speaking only to the driver. Apparently, he was being “obstructed in the course of [his] duties”.

    Now, any ass should know that no eighty year old man is going to be silent when his wife is being disrespected, especially when she is obviously startled by the interaction. All my father was saying was that it did not call for all of that.

    Finally, my eighty year old father attempted to alight from the car, which may have caused the officer to fear for his life because he became even more aggressive, barking, “Stay in the car!”

    Luckily for him, he was not stupid enough to pull his gun or put his hands on the eighty year old. Although, my father told me he was preparing to be arrested. At that point, he said, he would have relished the opportunity to visit the station.

    I am reminded of Hal Austin’s concern that our police officers are receiving training from the savages in the United States of America.

  7. Goeht Avatar
    Goeht

    David,
    when I attempted to google the story of the shooting here is what I got
    “Mar 28, 2025 · Outrage over police shooting By Josué Ramiréz Nelson josuenelson@nationnews.com Residents of Kendal, St John, are enraged over the police …”
    Clicking on the link directed me to a BU post of March 28 in which the story is posted. So, I am now wondering if the story above is for today or is an old story that just posted today.

    I am kinda slow these days.

  8. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    We TRULY reap what we sow.

    Time was, when interacting with a policeman was mostly a case of dealing with a highly respected neighbor, or at least with someone who acted in a CIVIL manner, and who expected you to also act civilly towards them – while understanding their role as law enforcers.

    Then we CHOSE to turn to the ‘first world’ (USA) for models of policing, for training for our policemen, and for MOVIES and INDOCTRINATION of our children of what ‘policing’ is supposed to be like instead…
    That is…
    …an ONGOING WAR between a highly armed and aggressive force, VERSUS an equally aggressive, suspicious and uncooperative public.
    This makes for entertaining MOVIES. But is it what we REALLY want…?

    Unless one happens to have a PERSONAL contact within the police service, there now tends to be this aggressive, combative attitude (ON BOTH SIDES) that HAS TO lead to the kind of outcomes we are seeing…

    That there have been ZERO attempts to reverse this OBVIOUS decline – either at the policy, operations or public levels speaks VOLUMES about where we are as a society…

    It all defies BASIC common sense – except that Isaiah 3 explains in VIVID detail exactly what we are seeing…

    What a time to be around…

  9. Former Brudda Avatar
    Former Brudda

    Very sad Donna apologies on behalf of current and former decent officers. Many of the guys are overworked, highly stressed and many of their supervisors are poorly trained and getting promoted due to nepotism or fraternal connections There needs to be an overhaul of the police force as political interference has created much dysfunction throughout the force. To say the force is in shambles according to many of my former colleagues would be an understatement. Corruption within the force is raising its head yet again at all levels due to the low pay. The talk and concern among the men are the Indians are paying for what they need and men applying for personal carry getting turn down. Here in Canada a former chief of Jamaican birth was forced to resign.

  10. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Former Brudda,

    You are not responsible and need not apologise. And believe me, nobody in my family is the victim type.

    Up until recently, all of our interactions with the police were exactly as Bush Tea described – reasonable and respectful. But a few years ago that changed, when one fool decided to threaten to beat my schoolboy son to a pulp. It was after a schoolboy altercation in which all the other participants scattered, leaving only my son, who stood his ground because he knew he had the right to defend himself from the attackers. He fully expected to be given the chance to explain himself. Instead, he was immediately grabbed as though he was the wrongdoer. My son did have a piece of wood in his hand, with which he was fending off the rocks that were coming his way. He was trained in martial arts and Bajan sticklicking. The use of the wood would have been very effective for him. He had found it by the roadside and it did have a few nails in it. But he had dropped it immediately as the boys ran off. There was no threat to the policeman or anybody else. And yet came that threat to a slightly built, fifteen year old in school uniform who was simply startled to have been grabbed without warning, and squirmed in the officer’s grasp.

    Fortunately for that fool, a plain-clothes officer noticed his bad behaviour, stepped in and took over. My son was taken to the station and was given the chance to explain, though WITHOUT EVEN A CALL TO ME. However, I guess they were smart enough to recognise the ring of truth from a good boy and he was allowed to leave. I did call about their lack of contact with me, but I was prepared to let the matter end there.

    Little did I know then the extent of the criminal cop’s behaviour! The smart child, knowing his mother and not wanting me to blow my top and head straight to the station with fire in my tail, neglected to inform me of the threat. He tried to tell his normally cool father, but found that he too was heating up.

    And so it was months before I was told the full story. He should have waited until he was an adult, because as a mother of a minor, I still blew my top immediately and I headed straight to the station with fire in my tail. At first, the station sargeant tried the bs on me, saying that I was lucky the officer did not pull his gun. But by the time I left there he had found out who was lucky. We received an apology and a question – how can we make this right?

    I don’t believe that the officer really would have beaten my son to a pulp, but that threat could have caused my son to soil his pants, if he wasn’t such a tough boy, not easily frightened.

    I do believe the officer was spoken to, because my son said he subsequently only looked at him funny but always steered clear of him.

    These officers are getting out of hand. There is ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE for this type of behaviour! Not stress, not overwork, NOTHING!

    Had it not been for that officer who stepped in and did the right thing, we would have no respect for the police at all, because that would have been THREE of them with bad attitude and behaviour. The first fool, the station sargeant trying to bullshit me, and the plain-clothes officer passing by.

    And, by the way, the boys found out that the altercation was based on a misunderstanding and resolved the issue themselves shortly after.

  11. Griff Avatar
    Griff

    “Following reports that Nicholas Kirton, the Canada men’s captain, had been taken into police custody in Barbados, Cricket Canada has said it is “actively monitoring the situation”.

  12. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    @Donna at 9:16 am “When last has an 80 year old hurt a young police person?”

    Perhaps never.

    The police person really needs to learn how to assess risk.

  13. David Avatar
    David

    If the country is serious about crime fighting here is a great opportunity for the private sector and government to collaborate.

    What about implementing relevant whistleblower and informer laws to generously reward information that leads to major crime busts?

    The time has come to do something different if we are serious about arresting crime. Previously the blogmaster suggested implementing curfews in some form to give the BFS the runaway to protect the society from hooligans.

  14. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    More shooting madness.

    https://www.cbc.bb/news/local-news/police-probing-shooting-in-vine-street/

  15. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Middle of the afternoon in broad daylight.

    “Police say they received a report that a series of gunshots were fired at about 2:20 p.m.”

  16. David Avatar
    David

    On the topic of crime, it is a problem that has enveloped the Caribbean. In fact has been dubbed a public health crisis. As a people we are ignorant to what is important. @williamskinner you are correct- we are reaping years of what was planted.

  17. David Avatar
    David

    Get to the root!

    Reverend challenges police to find new ways to reach youth

    IF THE BARBADOS POLICE SERVICE is truly going to move from a force to a service, it must get to the root of what is troubling youth, says senior pastor at the Apostolic Teaching Centre, Reverend Eliseus Joseph.

    During his sermon at a thanksgiving service in celebration of the 190th anniversary of the police service, held yesterday at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre,

    Two Mile Hill, St Michael, he said many youth were looking for meaning and suffering from trauma, so addressing this deficit was key to halting crime.

    “It is important that you understand that all human beings have a strong desire to understand their lives, and to get clarity about their identity, and to recognise meaning in their lives,” said Joseph, whose background is in sociology.

    “A sense of purpose gives us meaning – it produces better experiences, it gives us a sense of fulfilment, it improves our physical [and] mental health, it gives us meaningful relationships, it provides us meaning at work and purpose at work, it improves our academic performance, it provides longevity for us and it also improves our working life. So meaning and purpose are the two most important things that we want to emphasise.

    Crime and violence

    “One of the things we also have to understand is that it is our youth predominantly [committing crimes], because when we look at the crime and violence, it is really happening among a very small group of people between, let’s say, the ages of 15 and 30. And when we think of those young people, they are struggling for meaning and purpose. And the reality is, there are a number of things that has happened in our society that predispose them to meaninglessness, to a sense of void and vacuum within their hearts or lives.”

    He told the gathering, which included President The Most Honourable Dame Sandra Mason, Commissioner of Police Richard Boyce, the top brass of the service, rank and file members and recruits, as well as Chief of Staff of the Barbados Defence Force (BDF), Brigadier General Carlos, Lovell, that a strong sense of meaning and purpose for young people could make a difference.

    “So I want to suggest that as you move forward as police officers, that you recognise that if you truly want to make the transition from a police force to a police service, you provide a service for the young people by first asking them, not what’s wrong with them, but what has happened to them,” he said.

    Joseph said violence was a cry for meaning, and addiction was an attempt to medicate pain and suffering, so he challenged the assembled officers to create innovative ways to give youth a sense of belonging.

    Minister of Home Affairs Wilfred Abrahams, in his address, said the world had changed and so policing had to adapt.

    “It is no longer about local maintenance of law and order. The police of today have to deal with cross-border policing, organised international crime, human trafficking, international narcotics trade, the proliferation of firearmrelated offences and the lack of respect for authority.

    “Through the evolution of time . . . that respect no longer exists and that makes your role more difficult.

    It is an international phenomena – discipline, respect for authority and general behavioural standards are on the decline. People keep pointing and saying the police should do this and the BDF and the Government should do that, but, quite frankly, we are not about policing communities but policing with communities and working with other institutions which are supposed to be supporting law and order in Barbados,” he said.

    Not in vacuum

    Abrahams said policing could not be done in a vacuum, and often, the police came in on the tail end when problems arose but were expected to make miracles happen. As such, he said, it was necessary to have a whole-of-society approach to tackle crime.

    Commissioner Boyce said the service had adapted to change and risen to every challenge, while following the trail blazed by their forebears. He said they were also embracing technology and new investigative methods, improving training and deepening their relationship with the community.

    “Our engagements with the community we serve are characterised by various acts of compassion with a willingness to assist persons on an emotional level, oftentimes selflessly putting the cares of others before ourselves. However, we are well aware maintaining that compassion and empathy in our duties can be somewhat challenging, given the vagaries of our duties. But where there are acts of hostility, we try to repair that fallout with appropriate responses.

    “Over time, we have endeavoured to be a highly professional organisation, and, to a large measure, we have been able to achieve that status. We still have the support and trust of our various publics, which is somewhat of a two-way street. If the community trusts the police, they will be more inclined to assist and partner with the police. We are highly accountable to the populace of Barbados. Hence we are aware we are to follow the rules, standards and guidelines that are in place, and when there is fallout with compliance with these checks and balances, then the appropriate acts are triggered,” he said. (CA)

    Source:Nation

  18. 1928sdf964 Avatar
    1928sdf964

    ideal! AI Predicts Mental Health Crises Before They Happen 2025 palatial

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