By Kurt Reynolds

Claudius Francis is considered a maverick of sorts, hardly letting up once he gets hold of an issue. The Straight Up host was true to form on Friday when he again questioned why a group accompanied by police officers was reportedly going around the city "videotaping regular citizens who had committed no crime."

Francis said he had it on good authority that the crew was operating under the directives of Commissioner of Police John Broughton. He said those involved in the filming were breaking the law. In addition, he claimed that the non-St Lucian crew was recording mainly "Rasta brothers" and "CDC friends as common criminals when they have done nothing!"

As it turned out, Francis, who had been on this for weeks, was correct about the filming. On Friday he revealed that the young woman in charge of the taping was the daughter of one of the recruited British police officers. On Thursday morning the young lady and her father were present at the scene when 25-year-old Donovan Joseph was found dead on the ground near his home in Ciceron. Police officers carrying out on-site investigations had reportedly found themselves in an altercation with the British officer over his daughter’s actions.

According to Francis, things at the scene "nearly came to a head when the officer in charge of the CID was bypassed and overruled by one of the British officers of similar rank, who authorized the female to enter the crime scene and take photographs, contrary to every police regulation in this country." "If a police constable is in charge of the crime scene detail, not even the commissioner of police can walk in on the crime scene without the permission of that constable," said Francis during his show.

"What legal authority does this female have to override our local police officers?" he railed on. "Is it because she is white? Is it because she is the daughter of a British police officer? Where did this lady get the permission?" Francis said he was demanding an explanation from the Commissioner of Police. In the interest of setting the matter straight the STAR contacted Commissioner Broughton to discover what had transpired at Ciceron. Initially Broughton said he had no comment and referred our questions to the press office. Officers there said they knew nothing about the matter but would look into it.

Minutes later we received a call. It was Broughton. He had telephoned to apologize for his initial reaction. In the interview that followed he "confirmed that there was a female daughter of Superintendent Peter Davis at a major crime scene." "It was authorized for her to do so," Broughton told the STAR. "She is undertaking a course and Mr Davis had asked for her permission to undertake certain pieces of work in connection with her degree course. I had agreed to that."

"She wasn’t taking pictures for publication," the Commissioner said, adding that if anyone was uncertain about the matter they could have "challenged that and stopped their photographs being taken." By his account the "dispute" that had taken place between Superintendent Eugene and Mr Davis was being resolved. "There was no contamination of the scene, no compromise of the integrity of the scene and as far as I am aware, nothing took place which would have caused me any problems at that time," he explained.

It appears that no one but the Commissioner and Mr Davis knew about the authorization. In fact, the STAR was informed by the department’s press office that "not even the ACP for Crime Vernon Francois knew about it." To this Broughton replied that Davis was a Superintendent within the organization and he hadn’t "supposed that I would have to write letters to everybody within the organization."

"To use the common vernacular, which both Mr Wayne and Mr Francis seem to use," Broughton continued, "do I need to copy them to all the black officers as well as the white officers?" "I had given permission to Mr Davis to do it under the understanding of exactly what she was doing. Which was, it wasn’t for publication; wasn’t going to compromise individuals and maybe in hindsight, what I should do is copy everybody, including the media, about exactly what is going to be taking place," he said.

Broughton suggested that Ms Davis has been here for six weeks conducting research and believed that by now the police officers should have been aware of her presence. The PC says if he gives an authorization to a senior member of staff he expects them to deal with it in the correct manner. "I think that’s one of the problems," he added. "The Commissioner is expected to do everything about everything for everybody. That is not necessarily the way I would like to work." But what of the rumors about half-naked Rasta brothers being photographed and treated like criminals?