Persons who use social media to broadcast death scenes have no respect for the relatives of victims or for the chain of notification.
This is the opinion of Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police Erwin Boyce, who stated that the “new norm” was to record and spread scenes of accidents or of violent shootings or stabbings as quickly as possible without any consideration for the impact it would have on the relatives of victims.
He said such actions made it difficult for police, who were trained in delivering such bad news to do so in a professional and caring manner.
“While much can be gained from its use, it can create an unkind and unprofessional response in the notification process because it is real time and has scope and capacity. For instance, as we have seen here in Barbados in recent times, social media is used to capture and spread violent sights and scenes depicting the death of a loved one, before official investigations are even initiated. The sights and scenes do reach family members and close associates before an official notification and as such create different reactions in the secondary victims,” he highlighted.
Pointing out that relatives never forgot the day of losing a loved one, in particular during tragic or violent circumstances, he suggested that members of the public refrain from displaying such callous disregard for these individuals .
At the time, the top official of the Royal Barbados Police Force was addressing police officers from Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Montserrat and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, during the Canadian Government-funded Improved Access to Justice in the Caribbean (IMPACT Justice) Project training course on death notification yesterday at the Accra Hotel.
The two-day workshop includes topics such as attending the scene, fundamentals of death notification, survivors’ reactions, stages of grieving and the handling of the victim’s property. (JMB)
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