Acting Commissioner of Police Don McKenzie has confirmed that he has not been presented or seen any report from a committee that was appointed by his predecessor in office Edvin Martin to look into several allegations of sexual harassment of female officers by the so-called “Men in Khaki”.

The island’s chief cop was given more than four months by THE NEW TODAY to come up with information on the issue following the last press briefing held by the Police High Command at head office on Fort George.

“A lot of the information that you asked for I don’t have and as I told you in the Press Conference I do not have it,” was the response of McKenzie when quizzed on the issue once again.

“The honest truth is that I am no way better for the simple reason that the key individual who was spearheading (the investigation) – actually she was the most Senior female Superintendent within the Police Force, has since retired. So that in itself has its challenge.

“The other thing is that the second most senior individual who played a lead role in the pursuit of that since I last spoke to you, she has been on vacation – soon to be back – but she is not back yet.”

Superintendent Nola Lewis was the most senior female member of RGPF until her retirement a few months ago and most senior now is Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Leslie-ann Parkes.

According to Commissioner McKenzie, the absence of these key individuals from the job “are some of the constraints am up against” in adequately handling the matter.

Asked if the committee is still functioning or just simply scrapped, McKenzie said: “Tell you what – the people who I was told have been part of the committee, as I said to you two of those individuals – the key one which would have been Superintendent Lewis has some time now retired.”

When quizzed about any preliminary report from the committee, the chief cop said: “I do not have documents, I haven’t seen any.”

Commissioner McKenzie was pushed to find out why he, as the new RGPF boss, did not seek to get an update from Supt Lewis on the work of the committee.

He said: “As I told you before it was not one of the conversations we (McKenzie/Martin) had. We have to bear in mind that when Commissioner Martin departed he was not necessarily in the best of health – he was fighting with a number of issues.

“So that was one (allegation of sexual harassment) that might have slipped through in terms of a conversation but as I said he was not in the best of health and as such that was one conversation we did not have,” he added.

Several female officers have branded the Committee established by the outgoing Martin as nothing but a sham in order to downplay the allegations against some of the “Men in Kaki” which included one member of the then Police High Command.

THE NEW TODAY had received reports of an exchange of nude photos from an Imani n the Traffic Department in Grenville with one top member of the High Command.

Several female officers also complained of receiving harsh punishment including frequently being assigned the midnight to early morning shirt for resisting sexual advances from some senior officers.

Commissioner McKenzie told THE NEW TODAY that he wants to be seen as a “forward-thinking” head of RGPF and preferred to put behind him these allegations.

He said: “I am saying that I am in a forward thinking mindset. I would say to you that I will have a genuine concern if the levels that were talked about at the time were correct and that level continues or that situation has not been abated.

“I would be seriously concerned if that (situation) exists with the intensity it is believed existed as in the past. I have not had any fresh complaints in recent times….,” he added.

When told that one way to be sure that this is dealt with is to allow the promised investigation by Martin to take place and be completed, McKenzie said he was not part of the High Command at the time and does not know for sure where to start such an investigation.

He noted that some serious action was taken by Martin before his retirement and recalled an officer at the Supervisory level whose employment with RGPF was terminated on disciplinary grounds following a sexual allegation complaint against him.

He pointed at a few other cases in which “strong action” including transfer was taken against the suspects by Martin on Disciplinary grounds.

“I know when complaints come up we have taken action. We stand ready to address issues about complaints that are being made by female officers,” said Commissioner McKenzie.