By Kieron Murdoch | Opinion Contributor

We take this opportunity to commend the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in our neighbouring country of St. Kitts and Nevis (SKN) for his refreshing and forthright approach to public and media engagement.

Since taking office in late 2023, he has demonstrated a certain savvy for a reasonable and measured level of communication with the citizens served by his office, often through the media. We took note of this because it can often be something that public officials lack.

Though the work of DPPs and their prosecutors is understandably not ventilated until it is presented in court, we believe that DPPs themselves should have a public persona.

They are the face of a country’s prosecutorial system. They, while independent, are also one of the faces of its overall system of justice alongside Commissioners of Police and to some extent, Ministers or Attorneys General responsible for crime and justice.

Since taking up his position, DPP Smith has been in the public eye a few times even so much as to warrant our attention. We can recall his public engagement when dealing with the issue of compliance with asset declarations. Through statements from his office and engagement with the media, he has also made calls for greater residents of SKN to cooperate with law enforcement.

More recently, he has appeared on camera to address the controversy of a Crown Counsel in SKN being charged in relation to allegedly aiding a fugitive.

It is not often that you find a DPP willing to communicate with the public on a steady basis. Some Police Commissioners more often are willing to do so, but DPPs can at times be wary of the limelight. It warrants saying that the tools being used in this instance are not revolutionary by any means – press events, planned public statements, and an occasional interview.

Nevertheless, we believe that DPP Smith’s willingness to engage with the public on these terms has the potential to auger well for the image of the justice system in SKN and could have a positive impact on public perceptions of its justice system.

Across the public service in our different islands, officials sometimes forget to communicate with the citizens they serve. At times, they view any level of engagement as either above or beneath them. Sometimes, the political climate prevents them from speaking on their own behalf.

Sometimes, they may see it as inappropriate. At times it may be, depending on the nature of the office and work being done, but more often it comes down to a lack of savvy, timidity, fear of accountability, or disdain for the press.

Some have a healthy and reasonable fear that too much press engagement or public communication will backfire. Putting yourself out in front will invite feedback and criticism of your policies and actions and inject you into the news cycle where your performance will be the subject of tedious debate by pundits (who often have an axe to grind). You also make yourself more accountable when people are keenly aware of your tasks and objectives and how long it has been since you said you would achieve them. That’s a risk.

But the alternative is often what we are accustomed to from some very important officials – they hardly ever engage, or provide even a broad periodic overview of their activities, nor do they address matters of public concern within their purview, nor do they address controversies related to their office when such things arise, nor do they say anything publicly in support of the work they do or laws they uphold.

For example, take the Integrity Commission in Antigua and Barbuda. There is no law which says that the Commission shall issue x number of public statements on x subject matters within x period, and shall communicate x to the public via x medium every so many months, but you would expect that from time to time, a body tasked with such an important duty would hold a press conference to report its work, right?

Or you might hope that they might issue statements annually, noting issues like the rate of compliance in relation to asset declarations, or the number of corruption complaints received in a given period, or even to remind the public of the functions of the office – things like that.

When was the last time you heard anything of the sort? This is not to say that every office or agency or department needs to have a public profile, but some do.

The office of the chief prosecutor – in the Caribbean known as the DPP – ought to have one. And when we think of our former DPP Anthony Armstrong, we sort of feel as though his profile was minimal.

This is not to suggest that he did not execute his role as a chief prosecutor, but he hardly demonstrated an understanding of the necessity for adequate public engagement which meets the demand for visibility and accountability while not compromising the integrity or the work of the office.

We are not saying that an Office like the DPP (in any jurisdiction) should be in the limelight every other week making prophecies and issuing inflammatory statements about combatting crime or spilling all the latest details revealed by ongoing investigations.

That would be imprudent, absurd and downright reckless. But a measured approach that seeks to keep the public informed of the overall objectives of the office while also responding when necessary to key issues that are of public concern is to us, the way to go.

DPP Smith is well known to Antiguans and Barbudans having previously served as Crown Counsel and Senior Crown Counsel here. He worked in the Office of the DPP and also was responsible for law reform and special legal projects in a later role.

Before leaving for St. Kitts and Nevis to take up his current post, he gave an interview in which he stated that he hoped to remain humble and to avoid the pitfall of having a position of power alter the way a person treats others. It is a rare thing for a public official to acknowledge that humility is a virtue needed for public service.

We continue to wish DPP Smith every success in executing his duties in SKN. It will only be to the benefit of our neighbours, whom we can see from our shores on a clear enough day.

About the writer:

Kieron Murdoch is an opinion contributor at antigua.news. He worked as a journalist and later as a radio presenter in Antigua and Barbuda for eight years, covering politics and governance especially. If you have an opinion on the issues raised in this editorial and you would like to submit a response by email to be considered for publication, please email staff@antigua.news.