So where’s the rabbit, Martin?

As with many guests who overstay their welcome, Senior Investigating Officer of Operation Tempura, Martin Bridger, is become something of a liability, and a costly one at that.

The results of the Justice Alex Henderson judicial reviews have made it quite clear that Bridger’s regard for the rule of law, given that he is a law enforcement officer, is also questionable.

While there are numerous criticisms that can be made regarding the work of the entire Special Police Investigation Team (SPIT), the one that gets under the skin of this writer is the fact that Bridger has managed to make people here in Cayman believe he is actually investigating corruption within the ranks of the Royal Cayman Islands Police Force.

Although I, too, was persuaded of this on Bridger’s arrival, I have since, in the wake of events, been dissuaded from this view. Bridger is here for major scalps. After all, police commendations, medals, accolades and gongs don’t come to internal affairs officers who expose the corrupt dealings of Sergeant Plod or Corporal Bobby. No, indeed, to get the crowd cheering Bridger needs to bring down the big fellas – commissioners, deputy commissioners and, of course, judges, and if you can bag yourself a chief justice – well that should really show ’em.

And, indeed, if any of our judiciary were to be proven to be corrupt by Bridger or any of SPIT then we would all dutifully applaud and congratulate his efforts. However, attempting to bring down a judge of longstanding such as Henderson for merely asking a fairly legitimate question of his dive buddy is hardly the stuff that will win you friends and influence people.

If, as has been hinted at throughout the Henderson hearings for those able to read between the lines, Bridger’s target remains among Cayman’s judiciary, the recent official revelations that the judiciary are no longer part of the Operation Tempura investigation leaves everyone wondering, exactly where is Bridger’s rabbit?

Back at the cop shop, from those on the ground, as it were, it seems that Bridger has made absolutely no efforts to investigate any allegations against police officers lower down the service. At present, Bridger has an interesting scorecard. He has certainly achieved the downfall of former Commissioner Stuart Kernohanwithout proving a single iota of misconduct against him, and, of course, Chief Superintendent John Jones remains suspended from duty on full pay, for almost ten months now, for allegedly being involved in a suggestion that Lyndon Martin and John Evan should riffle in Desmond Seales’ filing Cabinets.

At the top of Bridger’s scorecard is Deputy Commissioner Rudolph Dixon, who is facing charges of misconduct in a public office that involve Dixon’s decision to release two men on two separate occasions from custody. Charges which some have already suggested are flimsy at best and are unlikelyto result in any kind of conviction once he appears in court and offers evidence for what will be proved to be legitimate decisions he made to release them.

While Bridger has managed to convince a number of people who already mistrust the competence of the local police that he is here for good reason, how much longer he will maintain their support without actually charging any police officers for real crimes remains to be seen. His mismanagement of the Henderson case has undermined any political support he ever had and certainly any support that existed in the local judiciary.

Although he may doggedly continue to insist that his investigation will go where the truth lies and will not be hindered by anyone, without a rabbit coming out of his policeman’s hat soon the truth may be revealed to be simply that there is no significant corruption in our police service, or if there is, he hasn’t found it.

There is no doubt that the RCIPS has issues and that may owe much to three commissioners in ten months – four if you count the shortest serving top cop in history, Royce Hipgrave, who clearly saw the writing on the wall on this PDQ, as they say.

However, most of the problems within the RCIPS probably stem from incompetence, poor standards of leadership or negligence rather than genuine corruption, and most police officers appear to be honest decent and hardworking people – some of them are even very good. Perhaps a few vigorous training sessions would have proved more effective in shaking up the RCIPS than Bridger’s investigation, and it would have certainly have been cheaper.

The issue, however, is that Bridger does not appear to be making any progress in bringing any police officers to account for anything, and while he is leading the people of Cayman to believe that his investigation is about corrupt police in general, his focus appears to be entirely on the issues surrounding the alleged break-in at Net News. Even the charges against Dixon arose accidentally and not through systematic investigation of police conduct at large.

Bridger’s reason for still being here is now severely in question, and if the investigation remains purely centred on ‘Netnewsgate’, aka ‘much ado about nothing’, or unless he produces a rabbit of significant proportions soon, there is little doubt that he will be driven from the jurisdiction. If, however, he has evidence of genuine corruption among the police or the judiciary, he must reveal that to the people of the Cayman Islands, who have been paying his wages and his expenses for the last 16 months since his undercover arrival in September 2007. The people deserve some transparency and some real answers.