Crime prevention minister tells police department: partisan politics has no place in police force

Jeremiah Norbert, the minister in charge of crime prevention and disability affairs in the prime minister’s office, recently stressed the importance of police officers remaining impartial and refraining from overt involvement in politics.

As a former police officer, Mr. Norbert stressed that police officers have a duty to protect and serve but cannot let personal views cloud their judgement.

At a press conference this week, he said partisan politics had no place in the police force. He urged officers to be free of bias and not let their political leanings get in the way of their professional duties, while recognizing the freedom to align with any political party. Minister Norbert stressed that officers should put their duties first, not their personal biases.

The minister also mentioned examples of police involvement in political activities, which he considered inappropriate. He expressed support for Prime Minister Pierre’s stance to allow the police to focus on their core duties without being distracted by political affairs. Mr Norbert insisted that the police should prioritize their work and avoid being more interested in politics than the politicians themselves, regardless of who is in power.

Sponsored | Article continues below

“While we have the freedom to choose which political party to join, we have a responsibility to ensure that we do not participate openly. We should never let political bias prevent us from doing the job we are hired to do. I don’t want to point out specific examples, but we have seen many times that police officers have participated in today’s politics through various means,” he said.

“I think the Prime Minister has said it many times – we refuse to get involved in police affairs. Under the previous government you saw blatant interference in the police organisation and we heard some comments which were really concerning in relation to the way the police were being run,” the minister said.

Furthermore, he stressed that “whether it is the Saint Lucia Labour Party or the United Workers Party in power, they (police officers) are hired to do their job and that should be their first priority, however, we have found that some police officers are more interested in politics than the politicians themselves”, Mr Norbert said, adding that “this should not be the case” and he would condemn such behaviour.

The minister also cited examples of officials engaging in politics on social media.

Asked if he thought disciplinary action should be taken in this case, Norbert said: “That’s why there’s a disciplinary committee that deals with these kinds of things, and if they feel that anything the police officer did warrants disciplinary action, then they have the power to take (the necessary action). “It’s not for me to tell them how to do their job or who to bring in, we have a committee that looks after this.”

Stating that members of the police force openly professed their loyalty to political parties, the minister said: “We have seen police officers going onto social media pages (such as) Facebook and making certain statements – derogatory statements against the prime minister or various ministers. As I said, I don’t want to mention any names, but it is obvious. This has been going on for some time and we have seen that certain police officers may even be administrators of political party social media pages; it is obvious.”