Stop it!

HEAD of the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM), Terrence Williams, has cautioned against what he said are mixed signals being sent to members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force about INDECOM’s right to question them and take statements.

He further argued that all stakeholders must stay committed to bringing change to the police force.

Commissioner Williams was addressing the Internal and External Affairs Committee of Parliament yesterday, along with Police Commissioner George Quallo and deputy chief of defence staff, Brigadier David Cummings. The committee discussed the findings and concerns contained in INDECOM’s first quarterly report for 2017, along with submissions from the Jamaica Defence Force and the police in response to the report.

He noted that since INDECOM was set up seven years ago, it has had five judicial reviews concerning the INDECOM Act, but argued that whenever the court rules in favour of INDECOM, this is perhaps not explained to the members of the JCF.

“It is now four years that the Constitutional Court has ruled that the INDECOM Act, insofar as it empowers INDECOM to require statements and answers to questions, is not unconstitutional. INDECOM is the only party that is spreading the news in the police force, because the police force lawyers, either they have not read the judgement or having read it they have not passed it on, so you still end up with the same complaints seven years after,” he stated.

Williams also pointed out that the police have not made use of the grievance committee that was set up to allow members who feel they have been wronged by INDECOM to seek recourse. He said no complaints have been brought before that body, which is independently chaired by a retired high court judge.

“The bottom line is this… for a long time the JCF was used to operating a certain way. That way produced an ineffective police force, an unaccountable police force… The police force leadership, the police force members, must participate in the change agenda, in the reform agenda, for the police force.

The Parliament [and] the executive must participate in the change agenda and they must stay the course of the change agenda, because we must have expected that members of the force [who] were used to some kinds of misconduct would be resistant to this kind of change… so, of course, they would have low morale, particularly when they are getting these mixed messages, but we have to stay the course for police reform because this is what is required to treat with crime in Jamaica,” Commissioner Williams insisted.

He also explained that the relatively low number of cases (seven per cent) for the number of shooting incidents for the quarter — 50 of which were fatal — is not an indication that all incidents do not warrant investigation.

“The quality of our investigation is not based on whether we end up with a charge. The quality of our investigation is based upon are we getting to the truth of the matter and having got to that truth of the matter, what is the proper way that the investigation should be disposed of,” he outlined, noting that, in many of these cases, there are no civilian witnesses, which only leaves the police’s account of the incident.

“I’m not saying that the police version is untrue, but you only have one version and there may never be any hope in some of these cases than to come up with an unsubstantiated report. But that does not mean that every single one shouldn’t be investigated because if you don’t have a regime which gives effective investigation to each of these cases, you will end up with cases deserving of going before the court, possibly not going before the court, [and] malpractices sometimes not being uncovered,” he added.

For the months of January, February and March, 86, 71, and 77 reports, respectively, were unsubstantiated. INDECOM reported that between January and May 25, 64 people had been killed by the police compared to 44 for the same period last year.