Will business owners now feel safe hiring off duty cops?

Polanco’s murder has brought into question whether business owners should feel safe hiring off-duty cops for security. The businessman is said to have been trailed from his establishment and robbed by a police officer who worked for him. It is a common practice for business owners to hire off-duty cops as security guards but will this incident lead to that practice being retired? That’s what the media ask the Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams, this morning. Here was his response.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “This should not have the business community feel intimidated or unsafe to hire police officers who are on actual duty and when I say actual duty I mean who are not interdicted to perform special duty for them. But when it comes to officers who are on interdiction it means that we as a department have identified them as a bad seed and I would discourage members of the public from hiring them. We can’t tell you don’t hire them because truth be told they are on interdiction, they are on half pay and they may need to do something else for ends to meet to be able to meet their financial obligations but we need to look at the reason why they are interdiction and again that should signal to you as a business person whether or not you should hire them as your security or for whatever reason within your organization. I can’t stress myself over things that I have no control over. I as the Commissioner of Police I always make sure that when there is in formation of police officers involvement in any illegal activity that they are dealt with and dealt with swiftly and so long as I do my part then I think the publicis going to be comforted to know that as a department we are not covering up the illegal or undisciplined actions of our members.”