Why does the Police Department Wait for D.P.P.’s Office Before Charging Criminals?

Dean Barrow

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions is severely backlogged with a number of criminal cases.  In fact, the bottleneck has seen files proceed through to the courts at a snail’s pace.  That constriction is directly affecting the ability of the police department to charge suspects for individual offences since it appears that criminals cannot be indicted without the consent of the D.P.P.   During a mid-afternoon press conference on Thursday, P.M. Barrow openly stated his position on the idea that all charges must be vetted and approved by the D.P.P., a practice which he describes as nonsensical.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“I don’t know that it’s fair to say, “Well, you’re throwing larger numbers at the problem and you’re not solving it.  It’s unknowable, but if we hadn’t thrown the larger numbers, how much worse might the situation ought to have been.  And, in fact, you talked about the precinct system, last year we did comparatively very well.  This year there is slippage so it has to be more than numbers but numbers must be a necessary if not a sufficient answer to the problem and if it’s not a sufficient answer to the problem then for God’s sake let us come at it as well in these other ways that will see us, I hate to use that terribly overworked phrase, think out of the box or make an approach that will employ some of this infrastructure of legal measures that the government has sought to give to the police.  I’ll put it on the table, we talked about the fact that currently there seems to be a feeling that the police can’t charge anybody without first getting the approval of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.  That makes no sense to me at all.  The Office of the DPP is the ultimate backstop but you can’t wait to charge until you’ve asked the DPP for the office’s view of the circumstances.  When I was growing up or when I was practicing law the police used to charge you.  If they felt they had enough material they charged you.  And I am saying to the police let’s do that.”