Far too many court cases against police — Vanterpool

Acting Commissioner of Police Jacqueline Vanterpool has raised concern over the number of court cases filed against police officers and the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force, warning that the trend has become troubling for the organisation.

“There’s far too many litigation cases against the police, some against police officers, some against officers who were interdicted and then they were found not guilty in the court and are filing litigation cases,” Vanterpool said this week.

She explained that these matters have forced the police to review how it handles internal cases to reduce errors and future complaints. “It also left room for us as an organisation to look deep within,” Vanterpool said. “How can we now correct the errors that we made?”

According to Vanterpool, one challenge is that internal disciplinary processes often take too long to resolve. “That is an area that we are working on to make sure that our adjudicators and presenters see out those cases as soon as they get them and just get them dispensed,” she explained.

The Acting Commissioner said officers facing criminal charges are also subject to internal police investigations, which can lead to extended suspensions from duty. “When an officer is arrested and charged for an offence, and he goes before the court, it doesn’t stop that officer from being tried internally. That is two separate courts,” she explained.

Vanterpool noted that in some cases, lawyers request that internal proceedings be paused until criminal court matters are concluded. “That is why you find a number of our officers are still out on interdiction, because we have to put some of those internal cases on hold,” she stated.

As part of her reform agenda, Vanterpool revealed plans to improve officer welfare support, noting that many officers face personal challenges that may not always be known to the force.

“One of the things myself and the command team was looking at was putting a welfare policy in place,” she said.

She confirmed that the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force has introduced new training for adjudicators and presenters involved in internal disciplinary cases.

“We are also training our adjudicators and our presenters with internal cases so they can be properly trained to look for the right and correct evidence before you can think about charging someone,” she said.