Police probe just 27 of 1,141 complaints

Members of the public are increasingly having difficulty identifying the name and station of police officers whose behaviour they wish to complain about. “Sceptical” and “mistrustful” describe the public’s view of the process of investigation of police officers, according to the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) Fifth (2000 to 2001) and Sixth (2001 to 2002) Annual Reports, laid in the House of Representatives on Friday.

The PCA Act of 1993 mandates the Police Service’s Complaints Division to investigate public complaints against police officers and to then report the findings to the supposedly autonomous PCA. In the Fifth Report, PCA chairman, Justice Jim Davis, noted the large number of uninvestigated complaints and lamented that the PCA was powerless in the face of the tardiness of the Complaints Division to investigate. He bemoaned: “What is disconcerting is the Division’s inability to investigate and report on these matters expeditiously. Out of the 1,141 complainants who lodged complaints with the Authority in 2000 to 2001, only 27 had their matter investigated and reported on by the Complaints Division of the Police Service. The Authority remains powerless in this situation, and the public quite naturally loses confidence in its operations. The Authority loses by default.”

To speed up investigations, Davis advocated the PCA increase its informal resolution of complaints, and variously suggested that the Complaints Division be better resourced or that the PCA Act be amended to allow the PCA to do its own investigations.  He said: “Amend the existing legislation to remove involvement in the complaints procedure by the Police Complaints Division and to allow the PCA to fully and independently undertake the responsibilities. This second alternative has been successfully adopted in other jurisdictions, for example the United Kingdom, and may be more attractive to a mistrustful public that cringes at the thought of ‘police investigating its own.’ In the Sixth Report, the PCA said the number of complaints it had received had fallen from the previous year. Although this fall might be due to a greater use of informal resolution and due to a waning public awareness of the PCA, the Report suggested a more negative reason. It stated: “It may also be due to scepticism from members of the public that their matters can be thoroughly and impartially investigated by the police in a timely fashion. Certainly the fact that 900 clients sought information (in follow-up visits) regarding their outstanding complaints supports this view.”

The Sixth PCA Report emphasised: “There is concern for the significant increase in the number of complainants lodging complaints against officers whose stations/divisions could not be identified. This has moved from 121 such complaints to 268 (over a year)...In many of these cases, complainants were also unable to provide the names/regimental numbers of the officers concerned, thus providing insufficient information for the matters to be thoroughly investigated and hindering possible action against the alleged defaulters.” It said: “Many of the complaints in categories such as ‘Impolite (Abusive) Behaviour,’ ‘Failure to Perform Duty,’ ‘Failure to Take a Report,’ and ‘Failure to Investigate’ seem to suggest lack of proper supervision as most of these incidents took place at the stations.” The 2,103 complaints in the Sixth Report were firstly ‘Impolite Behaviour’ (using abusive or threatening language) — 494; secondly ‘Harassment’ (repeated verbal attacks and threats of incarceration) — 354; thirdly ‘Malicious Prosecution’ — 252; and fourthly ‘Failure to Perform Duty’ — 227.

A separate table in the Report showed increases in the number of complaints over the previous year in six areas. Most notably, complaints against policemen of Sexual Abuse rose by 150 percent from four cases to 10 cases,  complaints of Extortion increased by 50 percent from 12 to 18 cases, complaints of Theft grew 43 percent from 40 to 57, and complaints of Malicious Prosecution grew by 26 percent from 200 to 252 cases. The PCA said these increases were cause for serious concern. The Fifth Report (2000 to 2001) highlighted complaints about alleged dishonest misappropriations by police officers. The Authority recommends that the Police Service Commission and the Commissioner of Police treat with such cases in accordance with the Police Service Code of Conduct (Police Service Regulations) that provides for disciplinary action where such conduct brings the Service into disrepute.”