Jeremiah Norbert, the Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister with Responsibility for Crime Prevention and Persons With Disabilities, recently emphasised the importance of police officers remaining unbiased and avoiding open engagement in politics.
As a former police officer himself, Mr Norbert highlighted that officers have a duty to protect and serve without allowing personal views to influence their judgment.
During a press briefing this week, he stated that partisan politics has no place within the police force. He urged officers to refrain from being biased and not to let their political affiliations hinder their professional responsibilities, at the same time acknowledging the freedom to associate with any political party. Minister Norbert emphasised that officers should prioritise their duty over personal biases.
The minister also referenced instances where police officers had engaged in political activities, which he deemed inappropriate. He expressed support for Prime Minister Pierre’s stance of allowing the police to focus on their core responsibilities without interference from political matters. Regardless of the governing party, Mr Norbert asserted that officers should prioritize their job and avoid being more interested in politics than politicians themselves.
“We have a responsibility to ensure that we don’t engage openly notwithstanding that we have a freedom to associate with whichever political party (we choose). We should never allow our political biases to prevent us from doing the work that we’ve been paid to do. I don’t want to point out particular examples, but we’ve seen it happening on numerous occasions where police officers through different means find ways to engage in the politics of the day,” he stated.
“I think the prime minister (has) said it on numerous occasions – we refuse to engage in the affairs of the police. Under the former administration there were situations where you saw openly, interference with the organization and we heard comments that were really concerning as it relates to how the police ran their affairs,” the minister said.
Furthermore, he emphasised, “it doesn’t matter if it is the Saint Lucia Labour Party or the United Workers Party that is in government, they (police) are paid to do a job and that should be at the forefront of their agenda, however, we find some police officers who are more interested in the politics than politicians themselves,” Mr Norbert said, adding that “it shouldn’t be” and that he would denounce that type of behaviour.
The minister also provided examples of officers getting involved in politics on social media.
Asked whether he thinks disciplinary action ought to be taken in such situations, Norbert said “that is why you have a disciplinary committee to deal with matters of that sort and if they feel whatever the police do warrants disciplinary action then the mandate is on them to do (what is necessary). I cannot tell them how to do their work or who to bring in and question we have a committee responsible (for) that.”
Members of the police force have openly showed their loyalty to parties, according to the minister, saying that “we’ve seen police officers go to social media pages (like) Facebook for instance and make certain remarks – derogatory remarks geared towards the prime minister or various ministers. As I said, I don’t want to mention any name but it’s obvious. That has been going on for a while where we see certain police officers who may even be administrators of social media pages for political parties; it’s glaring.”