M J Mitchell
Overseas Territories Department
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
2 King Charles Street
London
13th February 1999
Dear Mrs Mitchell
Re: Bermuda Formal complaint - Oppressive Conduct etc.
I refer to my letter of January 24th in respect of which I have not received
a reply.
Following receipt of your letter in which, after liaison with the Bermuda Authorities,
you directed me to Mr law of the Ministry of Labour, Home Affairs & Public Safety
(Bermuda), I wrote to the gentleman.
The following reply was received:
Ref: CSS/PL26/2
21 January 1999
Dear Mr Swift
I acknowledge receipt of your complaint package which I received on 14th January 1999.
It appears that you contacted me in my capacity as Secretary to the Police
Complaints Authority. Unfortunately you may have been misled as to the functions of
the Authority.
The purpose of the Authority is to hear and act upon complaints made by members of the
public against the conduct of Police Officers. It is quite clear in your case that
the complaint is an internal one relating to events when you were an officer in the
Bermuda Police Service. Consequently your complaint is outside the scope of the
Authority. I have copied your complaint to the Commissioner of Police and Deputy
Governor.
Yours sincerely,
Martin Law
Co-ordinator of Security Services
ML/ag
cc. Deputy Governor
Commissioner of Police
(Philip Smith - U.K. - Complaint)
You will appreciate I am far from pleased that I have been misled by you.
My time has been wasted and costs incurred.
It appears my complaint rests with the Foreign Office; it is your officials who
acquiesced to my dismissal and now appear intent on misdirecting me now.
I trust I will receive a reply to my previous letter in the near future. My displeasure
now extends to the manner in which you are handling this matter, it appears the F.C.O. is
intent on frustrating my attempts to have my complaint addressed rather than addressing
it.
I have written to Mr Law again as I believe the content of his letter may be incorrect,
the result of a superficial approach.
I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.
Yours faithfully