Police officer back on job following 7-day confinement

by Terresa McCall
Reporter-SKNVibes.com
 
~~Adz:Left~~ BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE integrity of another Police officer is being questioned by members of the public following rumours that he was involved in an illegal practice.
 
Initial rumours suggested that the officer is a Constable attached to the Immigration Department and he may have changed some recorded information stored by that department.
 
SKNVibes made investigations into the matter and according to unconfirmed reports, a woman was to have left the Federation and instructed not to return until six months after.  This media house understands that the Police officer, who was identified as Constable Bernard Maynard, stamped the woman’s passport to indicate that she left the Federation, knowing that she did not. Further reports indicate that some three days later her passport was again stamped by the said officer to indicate she had returned.

While the specific charge that was brought against the Constable was not then known, this media house was reliably informed that he was confined to barracks for a period of time and has since resumed active duty.

SKNVibes, over the course of its investigation into the matter, met with some degree of difficulty in obtaining information from the Police.

Yesterday, however, when the Police Force’s Press and Public Relations Officer, Inspector Cromwell Henry, was contacted by this media house, he cleared the air on the matter and informed that contrary to popular belief, the officer did not commit a criminal offence but was charged in accordance with the magnitude of his actions. He said that because of the nature of the incident, the issuance of a press release was not necessary.

Henry told SKNVibes that Constable Maynard was charged with “discreditable conduct” and was resultantly confined to barracks for a seven-day period which ended on Tuesday.

“The officer was charged internally with a disciplinary offence. It is not usual for us to bring these disciplinary breeches to the public unless there is some criminal investigation which is likely to follow. Reference was made to the Alister Huggins case where a press release was issued in relation to a disciplinary charge and that was so because there was a criminal investigation which was ongoing. In this particular case there is no evidence of criminal intent, therefore, based on our practice, we did not find it necessary to issue a press release,” Henry said.