SKN: Justice Morley holds meet with police to strengthen judicial system

A two-hour discussion has been held between the several police officers and Justice Iain Morley QC on how to increase the movement of cases through the justice system in St Kitts and Nevis SKN.  The meeting was held at the Customs and Excise Departments’ Conference Room on Wednesday, February 23, 2022, and Justice Mprley coordinated the activity with Commissioner of Police Hilroy Brandy.

Various dignitaries such as assistant Commissioners of Police Andre Mitchell and Adolph Adams and several other senior Police Officers and prosecutors from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (ODPP) have joined the meeting.

“What we have done is that we had a meeting of the senior police officers along with the members of the ODPP for a neutral discussion about how to improve the throughput of work through from charge to the court through to a result whatever the result might be. Because there are inefficiencies in the system, everybody agrees, and the challenge is how do we put those inefficiencies right,” Justice Morley explained.

The High Court judge described the meeting as “a very positive experience.”

He further emphasised that they have reflected the duties of Police Officers in the way that they conduct investigations, they have reflected on the importance of communication between the Police and also the ODPP, so there is greater connectivity between the two offices, and we have reflected on how we can manage cases better in the courtroom so that they are more efficiently presented and they are better prepared.

He said that while there were a number of reasons that contributed to the length of time it took for cases to be completed, several recommendations to address some of them were put forward.

“They’ll be all sorts of issues, some of which are more immediately controllable than others, but the most important thing is that we’ve identified what they are, and we’ve done a lot of good work on that, we have some ideas of how to deal with the problem having identified them, and we’ve come up with some perfect ideas today. We haven’t covered everything, but we have made some progress, and there have been some positive vibes within this big group,” underscored Justice Morley.

Justice Morley expects to have a follow-up discussion shortly to assess what improvements have been made as a result of the meeting.