David Morris: I will not tolerate racism in RVIPF
“Racism is around prejudice and discrimination based on people’s colour of skin and their ethnicity and their background...in terms of racism, it is a disciplinary offence and if we are aware or made aware of it, or specific officers who are racists then they will be dealt with accordingly in terms of our disciplinary code,” disclosed David Morris.
When asked to clear up the perception by some that white officers control most of the Force, the acting COP responded, “That is wrong as well”.
“You tell me which one of my three Superintendents is white? You tell out of the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner [of Police] who is white? I am not white, my background is in United Kingdom (UK) policing but I am not white. You tell me out of the six chief inspectors, how many white chief inspectors I have. Yes I have a lot of chief inspectors that come from diverse backgrounds but they are not all white,” Mr. Morris stated.
He continued, “So I get quite annoyed with the media and the blog sites that talk about Caucasian officers taking over the Force. There are very few Caucasian officers in the Force and they don’t have overall control of the Force, and they are here to do a specific job and that is to assist the RVIPF to reduce and detect crime where it is committed.”
Touching on the timeline of the UK officers contracted to work along with local officers, the acting COP explained that such an arrangement took place before he arrived in the Territory.
“...It has been going on long before I arrived here. If you look back the RVIPF has always have UK officers, it has continued while I am here and it will continue into the future because at the end of the day the Territory is a small one but it’s a significant Territory in terms of crime. And the officers here have to be skilled to face the growing trend in terms of technology, the ways in which criminality is perpetrated and to do that we have to bring in officers who have specific skills and abilities to partner [with local officers] and bring those offenders to justice,” the acting COP said.
He also added that female officers are being encouraged to develop and progress in senior positions in the Force.
On May 9, 2011, some local officers had complained to Virgin Islands News Online that there is a rift between black officers vs white and local officers vs expatriate officers which has affected the moral, and team working relationship of the organisation.
In the article, the officers had also complained about the lack of promotion and felt they were treated unfairly compared to the UK contract officers who they alleged were even paid better than they were.
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