PCA: 209 complaints about police from October to March

THE Police Complaints Authority (PCA) says it received a total of 209 complaints between October 1, 2019, and March 31, 2020.

In a Facebook post on June 26, the authority said 335 initial reports were made, but only 194 fell within its remit.

It then reviewed 15 of the initial complaints and those were also considered to be within the PCA’s remit, bringing the total to 209.

Of the total, 122 were alleged criminal offences, while 185 were allegations of disciplinary offences.

The post said, “A single complaint may be assigned multiple categories of criminal offences.”

The criminal offences included: 50 cases of assault, 39 fatal and non-fatal offences, 16 firearm offences, 15 occasions of fraud and corruption, 15 instances of larceny, seven instances of damage to property and 72 offences classed as “other.”

The disciplinary offences include: 106 counts of discreditable conduct, 81 counts of unlawful or unnecessary exercise of authority, 72 instances of neglect of duty, 12 instances of corrupt practice, seven counts of disobedience to orders, three of falsehood/prevarication and three of insubordinate/oppressive conduct.

In addition, there were two counts of drunkenness or drug-taking, two counts of being uncivil to a member of the public, one count of drinking on duty/soliciting drink and one instance of using property/facility of the service without the written consent of the Commissioner of Police.

The highest number of complaints (39) was from the Northern Division and the lowest (ten) was in Tobago.

The Central Division had 29 complaints and 18 were from the North-Eastern Division, while the Port of Spain, Southern and Western Divisions had 16 complaints each. The Eastern Division had 12 complaints and the South-Western Division had 11 complaints.

Forty-two of the complaints were from “unknown” police divisions.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith told the public the police are well-trained, but reminded, “We are not perfect; neither is society. But we come from society. We’re expected to be at a higher standard and I give the assurance that we would.”

He said he intends to have a “firm hand” when it comes to police being involved in any form of criminal activity, but reminded the public that justice is not instant, but takes time.

He was speaking about protests on Tuesday linked to the police shooting of three men – Joel Jacob, Israel Clinton and Noel Diamond.

But at a press conference on Thursday afternoon, the Prime Minister said while the PCA will investigate the incident, the public cannot just “sit back and say ‘Leave it up to the PCA and one day they will churn out a result.’

“It has not been functioning that way and that loss of or absence of confidence is there. And that means that when the Parliament thought we would have dealt with these matters in that way, we still have to wait for that kind of outcome. So, we have to ensure that there are proper investigations that generate evidence.”

Tthe PCA’s website says one can visit its Port of Spain headquarters, call the office, download a complaint form from the website and e-mail it, or use its mobile application to make a complaint.