Retiring Police Commissioner Buel Braggs says he may enter politics after a short holiday, and looks to Deputy Commissioner Rudolph Dixon or Assistant Commissioner Anthony Ennis to replace him after departing office in July.
‘I have a few things in mind,’ the commissioner said yesterday. ‘I’m a community-oriented person, and maybe down the road I’ll get involved in politics.
‘I have always seen myself as supporting a political party, and maybe a little later, in the next couple of years, I’ll think about a political career, throwing myself in the ring,’ he said.
In a surprise announcement on Monday, Mr Braggs, 51, announced his retirement after 29 years with the Royal Cayman Islands Police, and only two years as commissioner.
He said he had long pondered retirement, and finally on Monday submitted a letter to Governor Bruce Dinwiddy.
‘I think I’ve done an excellent job, the best I could. I have made the islands as safe as I could and the organisation is in capable hands.
‘I always said I would serve three years to five years, but recently have been thinking about [this],’ he said.
Mr Braggs, who is the first Caymanian commissioner, was quick to deny that he had been forced out.
‘No, no, no … If I were forced out, there would be a much bigger fight. I would say a lot more to the media.
‘I have not been forced at all. I want to make it clear. This is all as a result of my letter to the governor,’ he said.
He also denied that his health had played a role.
‘Like everyone, people have medical problems, but there this is nothing you could call a medical issue here,’ he said.
‘My family has been put aside for 20-odd years. I still have a young daughter, so I am taking this chance to spend a little quality time with the family, and my wife supports me.
‘I have no hesitations about going. Already I feel a lot happier. It’s like a weight has been lifted from me,’ he said.
Mr Braggs initially joined the police as a constable in 1976, after managing an auto parts store for several years.
He attended John A. Cumber primary school in West Bay, attended middle school, and finally graduated from Cayman Islands High School, now John Gray High School, in 1971.
‘I had a young family, and so decided to join the police after a lot of interest was shown in me by some police officers. I worked my way up through the ranks to commissioner.’
It is a path he is particularly proud of and says Caymanians should continue to fill the top job.
‘I have worked with the top team for some two to three years, and over the last 10 years, have had a good relationship with them.
‘We have excellent officials in the top team and both Mr. Dixon and Mr. Ennis will continue to build on the solid foundation. I feel that Mr. Dixon could run this with great success, could do an excellent job,’ he said.
He was reluctant to describe the frustrations of the commissioner’s office, preferring to see the difficulties in terms of crime-fighting.
‘I want to be a little careful here, but we have seen a lot of breakdowns in our coastal borders,’ he said.
‘We have seen a lot of drug trafficking, which is presently being addressed. We are getting a lot of support from the Government and both Mr. Dixon and Mr. Ennis are right now meeting to go to Cabinet to put our case forward.
‘We are constantly fighting for improvements in the organisation.’
He blamed low salaries as the major reason for the departure of officers.
‘We can’t hold people back if they want to move on to greener pastures,’ he said. ‘I have seen 99.9 per cent of the officers who have left in the last couple of months, and they left for pay, for salaries.
‘Everything has gone sky high and they find they just can’t live on the meagre wages they get as police officers.’
A retroactive increase in allowances granted in March was welcome, but addressed only part of the problem, which extended to general resources and equipment.
‘The biggest change I have seen is that when I joined in 1976, people had a lot more respect for the police and what they did,’ Mr. Braggs said.
‘Today, the discipline in general has been thrown out the door, in school, in homes. You have single parents trying to raise entire families and other parents that do not have time to spend with their kids.
‘We really need to pay more attention to the social problems we’ve got.’
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