In recent weeks, the public has managed to breathe a sigh of relief as the police were able to “crack” two of the three recent murder cases on the island.

A lot of the credit must be given to those hard-working officers of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) for the time, effort and energy used up, in arriving at the point of making these arrests.

The public should not be fooled into thinking that our police force is incompetent and cannot solve the real big and important crimes in the country. RGPF possesses enough capable officers but the problem with crime fighting in the force is linked to the kind of leadership that is in place at the given time.

If there is a Commissioner at the helm or a Superintendent of Police who commands the respect of the men and women under their charge then the rank and file will be motivated to work and produce results. Several police officers confided to us that the previous Commissioner, Fitzroy Bedeau was bias and showed open favouritism in appointments and the police force suffered under his command with many officers refusing to go the extra mile.

Even in today’s setting, GRENADA TODAY is mindful of the fact that more cases could be solved by the police if all and sundry inside CID pulled their weight and gave an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay from the State.

The newly appointed Police Commissioner Winston James should be encouraged to continue the house cleaning within the police force as seen in recent weeks and to weed out all the undesirable elements and bad apples in the bunch.

The Chief Cop should extend the investigation and look further into some of the activities of the latest officer to be charged for alleged wrong-doing, Inspector Wayne Wilson. Police insiders have confided to us that the arrest should have been made a long time ago but there are those on the inside who were offering shelter and protection for Wilson for a long time for certain and obvious reasons.

At this very moment, there are implicating documents in the hands of certain government officials about the importation of an Isuzu Truck from Japan to Grenada as long ago as February 1999 by a company - Wilson Electronics of RedMud, St. Mark’s - operated by Insp. Wilson.

As a matter of fact, these documents with the scam were given to the Comptroller of Customs, Comptroller of Inland Revenue, and the then Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Timothy Antoine.

The Inspector’s company imported the truck for an individual from Resource, St. Mark’s and in the process the laws of the country were allegedly broken by those involved through a false declaration to the Customs Department.

In fairness to the Comptroller of Customs, he acted on the information by passing on the matter to his Enforcement Department to handle but over the ensuing months nothing has apparently been done by the officers. There is an abundance of documents around to nail the culprits but for whatever reason those who can deal with the matter have refused to move against the law-breakers for many years.

Our investigations seem to suggest that Insp. Wilson was a major importer of used Japanese vehicles into the country for almost a decade. He was not only importing for private individuals for a fee but also for the police itself. The question arises about whether the Public Service Commission (PSC) had given this senior police officer the necessary permission to engage in such business activities.

There are others in the police force who are allegedly doing the same thing - using government time, resources and computer systems to engage in their private business ventures with the Japanese car dealers. GRENADA TODAY is also urging Commissioner James to crack down on those police officers who can be seen on a daily basis providing security service in their official uniforms to many private businesses on the island.

We have heard that some of these officers walk if necessary to take up duty at these business places but when the public make telephone calls to police stations to make reports, the same officers will inform them that they cannot come to their place due to lack of police transportation.

When these officers work from 8.00 a.m to 4.00 p.m and then leave their police bases to work at nights for these private business houses, how much service can they provide and give to the State the following day?

Mr. James, we are calling on you to investigate this matter urgently and take a decision in the best interest of the people of this country whose tax dollars continue to pay for the functioning of the force. Mr. James can also make a dent on allegations of corruption in the force by asking for help if necessary from the outside to look into the finances of the police force especially the use of deductions made from the salaries of police officers by the Welfare Association.