But even without Bradley's help, the commissioner is determined to weed out the dirty cops from out of the department. He admitted that there are definitely more police officers working with the cartels, and he says once they're caught, they will be processed like any other criminal. But still, he explained that it's frustrating to know so many members of the department - whose mandate is to stop crime - are compromised.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I have said before and I'm not going to run away from it that we do have intelligence that there are police officers working with the cartel, we can't run away from it and what I can assure you that once they manifest themselves, we are going to cut their necks, I'm not gonna waste no time so the thing is that those police officers who are involved and are still doing it, please stop, because if you are caught, I don't know if working for the cartels and collecting a little money worth more than your integrity, worth more than your life, worth more than the lives of your loved ones because the minute you venture into working with the cartels, you put your life at risk, you put the life of your loved one at risk, you put our integrity at risk, and even the country so the thing is they need to stop but we are going to continue to pursue them and once we catch them, they have no space in this department, they must go."
Reporter:
"So what's keeping you from weeding out these cartel cops from the police department because if you can't trust your officers how can the public trust them?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"It is rather frustrating, the truth is, the same people who are supposed to be working with you to fight these cartels are the same ones who are working with them. It is rather frustrating but what else can be do in the absence of evidence or the absence of them being caught and I have said and the minister agree, once they are caught, if we have the slightest degree of circumstantial evidence against them, we will charge them and put them before the court and let the court decide their faith because as a police officer, much more is expected of you and when you venture into these kinds of activities, you don't only embarrass yourself you embarrass your family, you embarrass the whole nation so it need to stop."
"I don't think it's a big number and to answer your question we cannot call our people name without evidence because I will be making myself liable but what we do those that we know of, we continue to monitor them and again with a view to see if we can catch them in the act and I can tell you in the past few weeks we have been successful in catching some of them and I think that the public needs to look at that and commend us for it, it's not that we are catching them and they are getting a free pass or a slap on the wrist because in addition to them being charged criminally, they're also going to be charged internally and we are going to expedite the internal hearing and once they're found guilty in the tribunal, that's it, they're gone, we have to part ways."
And the last time we spoke to Bradley, he mentioned that the police prosecutor alluded to a drug ring within the department at the bail hearing. We asked the ComPol about this.
Courtney Menzies:
"Dickie Bradley said that the police prosecutor alluded, in the bail hearing, she alluding to there being a corrupt crime or drug ring within the police department who tentacles go deep and wide throughout the entire department, is this true and if so, what is the police doing to try and root out this drug ring?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Well, I wish Dickie Bradley had not opted to represent the plane landers and opted to prosecute the matter for us, I don't know if that was indeed said at the bail hearing and I can tell you right now as the commissioner."
"I have some serious concerns because these same police officer as you would know, they have been active across the country and they were very much == oriented, they made a number of drug busts across the country and the sad part is that Mr Bradley is representing some of the accused persons that these policemen have charged, now he is their attorney, you can do the maths from there, there's a clear conflict of interest because now he is the attorney who is supposed to testify in court against some of his clients."
