Barbados Police Service Investigates Allegations of Poor Customer Service in Shooting Incident Reported by Donisha Best

The Barbados Police Service (BPS) has launched an investigation into the alleged poor customer service provided to a Barbadian female who recently tried to report a shooting incident in Martins Road, Pinelands, St Michael.

Commissioner of Police Richard Boyce told the DAILY NATION yesterday he had seen the video where Donisha Best bemoaned the poor service allegedly provided by a male police constable. He said he was very concerned with what the young woman accused one of his officers of doing.

“The video would have caused major concern for members of the public. From the time I saw it, to me it speaks to unprofessionalism, if it is true, and that is something that we do not condone within this organisation,” Boyce said.

“I’ve launched an investigation into the matter and, however, it turns out, we will take the appropriate action. At this point it has been assigned to a senior lawman, a superintendent, to investigate,” he confirmed. Boyce did not reveal the name of the senior investigator.

In the video, Best spoke of concern she had for her mother’s welfare, claiming a fragment of a bullet had hit her mum in the face, before ending up on a sofa, after a shooting in the area. She showed the bullet fragment in the video as well.

Best also alleged that the policeman who answered 211 (police emergency line) was rude, hanging up on her twice as she tried to report the shooting.

Efforts yesterday to reach Best for a response to the Commissioner’s comments on the matter proved unsuccessful.

Boyce said he would not want to prejudice the investigation into the actions of one of his officers, but made it clear that should the policeman be found guilty of what Best has alleged, the offending officer would be disciplined, as it was against the rules and regulations of the Barbados Police Service.

The Commissioner was also asked if calls by members of the public into police stations across the country were recorded for quality assurance purposes, but he chose not to comment on the matter, because of its sensitivity.

However, Boyce said the service takes training methodologies and the training of its officers very seriously.

“There is an ongoing process where we do customer training for our officers. That is something we’ve had in place for some time now because we believe that, in engaging members of the public, we should have a cutting-edge policy. Customer service is a high-priority engagement for us,” he added.