Laid back police

Wayward officers are apparently being protected from reproof at three different levels — prosecution in the law-courts, one-man police tribunals, and three-man police tribunals.

The Report said the non-appearance of police officers for court hearings has now become chronic.

The PSC Report listed offences dismissed by the law-courts due to the absence of police complainants to testify against their fellow officers. Among these were a police inspector who got off charges of obtaining money by fraud and forgery, and a sergeant who escaped prosecution for drawing his weapon against his superior.

Then there were a police corporal who escaped a charge of illicit sexual intercourse with a female minor, a police corporal who dodged multiple charges under the Immigration Act, including issuing a false document, making a false statement, and aiding and abetting an offence.

Eight police constables walked free of a variety of offences due to absent police complainants. These crimes include sexual intercourse with a female minor, unlawful assault, assault by beating, obscene language, insulting language, assaulting a police officer, failure to wear a seat-belt, refusal to give name and address to the police, and larceny of cash.

The Report also noted a tardiness in 2004 in hearing matters before disciplinary tribunals of the Police Service itself.

Some 28 such matters which don’t carry the penalty of dismissal, were heard by one-man tribunals appointed by the CoP. However, many police officers and the Police Service Social and Welfare Association have complained that a large number of disciplinary matters remain unresolved.

In addition, the PSC said that despite some improvement, police recruitment was still marked by “allegations of favouritism, nepotism and bias.”

The Commission also said that criticism by the public of the conduct of the police in many areas was a point of great concern.

It is noticeable that the PSC Report follows on the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) Annual Reports which perennially lament that few complaints about police officers made by members of the public are ever investigated.

The PCA is a supposedly-independent body which in practice relies on the Police Service’s Complaints Division to investigate complaints by the public against errant officers. However the PCA Report of 2003 to 2004 revealed that out of some 4,063 complaints against police, only 169 were investigated!

A mere four percent of complaints were probed! The PCA had lamented that this poor record had cut confidence in the police, and in particular in the practice of “police investigating police.”

So the PSC Report and PCA Report taken together indicate that many police officers are escaping sanction at all of three levels — the nation’s law-courts, Police Service Disciplinary Tribunals, and the Police Complaints Authority.

We hope this scandal is corrected by the recently-passed Police Reform Bills. With crime as the most pressing concern of our nation, the police must hold the broad trust of our citizens, and this is best done by ensuring that any bad apples in their ranks can be plucked out and held accountable to one of any of several disciplinary forums.