EDITORIAL AUDIT: Homicide Detectives Go 0-for-15 as VIPD Leadership Cowers in the Shadows

THE ST. CROIX SUN NEWS EDITORIAL BOARD

The newly installed administration of Virgin Islands Police Department Commissioner Mario Brooks is facing an institutional crisis of confidence, and the public is entirely justified in asking a fundamental question: Whose side is the VIPD actually on?

For a police force whose homicide investigation detectives are currently sitting at a staggering zero-for-15 on murders in 2026, the department’s public priorities seem entirely inverted. As this publication recently pointed out, the only two major cases effectively "closed" this year occurred when street justice held the gavel, forcing the accused to pay the ultimate price. That is a brutal, extrajudicial verdict that cannot legally happen under the laws of the U.S. Virgin Islands, where the death penalty is not enforced. Yet, that final sentence is dealt out regularly on our streets by criminals wielding a boatload of smuggled machine pistols and ghost guns against unarmed, ordinary citizens.

Instead of an aggressive, transparent crackdown on this lawlessness, the public is treated to a bizarre double standard. The VIPD routinely bends over backwards to express official grief over the loss of habitual offenders and hardened career criminals. Is Commissioner Brooks planning to spend his tenure apologizing for the very individuals terrorizing our neighborhoods?

The evasion of public accountability goes right to the top of the department’s payroll, where the math reveals a staggering game of administrative musical chairs. For years, the VIPD’s primary information officer drew a breath-taking public salary of $123,696—quietly balancing a full-time government paycheck while simultaneously driving the private brand management of the Virgin Islands Consortium. It was only after this publication turned up the editorial heat that the department scrambled to perform a quiet, midnight haircut on the ledger, trimming that figure down to $90,000.00.

But even at ninety-thousand dollars a year, the public spokesman remains completely invisible. For that kind of taxpayer money, the community expects a commanding, transparent presence at the podium. Instead, we are treated to a decade and a half of absolute silence. Did newly installed Commissioner Mario Brooks demand the salary trim because he realized his silent gatekeeper was breathing too close to his own $135,000.00 executive altitude? Or did the VIPD brass simply realize the gig was up once we exposed the double-dipping?

It seems the only public forum where the VIPD leadership reliably appears is at the bank to cash their checks every two weeks—perhaps standing side-by-side—while completely hiding from the communities they are sworn to protect. What exactly do they have to hide? If leadership figures like Naomi Joseph and Uston Cornelius are meant to represent the VIPD putting its best foot forward, they are instead demonstrating an uncanny ability to put their feet directly into their mouths. The public is thoroughly exhausted by a police force that repeatedly shows its ass to the community, only to pull a disappearing act the moment we demand real answers. We are certainly not swooning over the performance so far.

From an "F" grade to an "A," the VIPD has a long, grueling road to climb to reach the top of Blue Mountain on St. Croix. Based on a zero-for-15 homicide track record, the community has every right to wonder if this administration is physically or ethically fit enough to make the trek. Or do they expect Mohammed to bring the mountain directly to them, wrapped up with another healthy, unearned paycheck?

The tax-paying public will only be able to swear by their police force when its leadership is finally willing to step out of the shadows, introduce themselves to the bright daylight of the U.S. Virgin Islands, and account for the blood on our streets and the waste on their payroll. Until then, the silence from the VIPD is deafening. It is time for the VIPD to pick a side: the side of Ray Martinez—or the side of truth, justice, and the American Way.