President of the Law Association, Senior Counsel Reginald Armour, says he agrees in principle with head of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) David West’s suggestion that the PCA be allowed to investigate, charge and prosecute errant police officers.
Speaking at a town meeting at City Hall, Port-of-Spain, on Tuesday night Armour said he agreed with the suggestion in principle but had some concerns which he would discuss with West privately. Both West and recently appointed deputy director, Andrew Stroude, addressed concerns by the public as well as informed them of some of their suggested ammendments to the PCA Act.
Some of the ammendments West said included the power to investigate, charge and prosecute police officers. He said there would be checks and balances from the High Courts as well as the Joint Select Committee of Parliament to ensure that the PCA if given the powers would act accordingly.
West said the ammendments were not new, adding that the PCA in Jamaica, UK and Barbados already have similar powers and have had good result West added that the PCA also wanted to be the first on the scene involving police misconduct. He said police officers should not be allowed to investigate their counterparts and the PCA should be the sole authority to deal with police alleged wrongdoing and not the Professional Standards Bureau.
Addressing the panel, Wendy Apparicio, the mother of Joel Apparicio, who was killed by police two years ago, called on the citizens to support the proposed ammendments. She said since the incident she has had little update on the matter and was recently informed that the matter had been sent for a coroner’s inquest.
Another relative of a man killed by police, Angelo Joseph, said the PCA was the only way citizens could get justice and he supported all the ammendments.
A former police officer, who did not want to be identified, said police officers were an extension of society and officers who were abusive officers were just abusive people that became police officers. She added that the training at the academy was not sufficient to change who the individual was as they could easily put on a show for their superiors and get a passing grade.
Officers, she added, needed to have continuous training and the public must understand that there were external factors that they the public contributed that made some officer react negatively.
West, during the discussion, said in some instances all a victim wanted was an apology from the officers, adding that 80 per cent of the complaints will be satisfied with that. That, he said, was the reason that the PCA wanted mediation services added to its portfolio.