Our recently renamed Barbados Police Service has had its fair share of entanglements over the years. They have included accusations of political interference, excessive use of force on detainees, sloppy investigations and even lashes from the Bench about their reliance on suspiciously convenient confessions from a high percentage of murder accused.To be fair, the image of policing around the world has taken a major hit, none more so than in 2020 with the George Floyd killing in the United States. The public execution in broad daylight of a suspect at the hands of police officers has done nothing to soothe the public perception that some police officers are prone to abuse their power.Here in Barbados measures have been introduced to quell public disquiet about alleged wrongdoing. These steps included the creation of a separate investigative arm that includes non-police officers, to hear complaints from the public about the bad actions of lawmen.
