Seeking constitutional power to prosecute errant police officers, director of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) David West has vowed to restore public trust and confidence in the Police Service.
Speaking at a public consultation at San Fernando City Hall auditorium on Wednesday night, West said if given constitutional powers, the PCA would arrest and charge those who gave the Police Service a bad name.
Once the PCA Act was amended, West said, the PCA would be in charge of its own prosecutions and would no longer have to depend on the Commissioner of Police or the Director of Public Prosecutions to lay charges.
Saying there was an increase in “police transgressions,” West showed clips of police brutality which made the rounds on social media over the past few months. He said many cases of brutality and harassment by the police took too long to reach the courts.
“Many times when we give our file to the DPP he is busy and there is some delay. It is not his fault, he has staff constraints, financial constraints,” West said.
He added: “We want to be able to take control of our own investigations and right now we can’t. It is very frustrating when you work in an organisation where officers work very hard and bring a beautiful file with all the evidence and it goes to the DPP or COP and it sits down there and nothing happens.”
He noted that the PCA wanted to help the Police Service.
“We are not here to attack the police. We want to assist the police so people would gain confidence and trust in them,” West said.
He also said that if the PCA was successful in getting amendments, T&T would become a safer place. West also assured that the PCA had no police officers on its payroll. He also revealed that the PCA was financially independent and could initiate its own investigations.
Outlining the proposed amendments, West said the PCA should have the power to stop and search people for weapons or evidence relevant to our investigations.
“Many times police are in possession of illegal weapons and we want to be able to stop and search them,” he added. He also called for an amendment to the Firearms Act to include the director and deputy director in the list of people to have firearms in their possession.
“We would like to be exempt from the Firearms Act. When we go to a crime scene we want to be able to take control of it and then bring it to Forensic Science Centre,” West said.
He also said the Government should amend the Dangerous Drugs Act saying: “Sometimes when we go to a crime scene there is narcotics and we cannot possess it.”
West also said there was a need to amend the interception of Communications Act to be able to access information from any communications network.
“In the SSA Act we do not want to be able to tap phones. We want to be able to corroborate the information the complainant gives us,” he said.
West also called for an amendment to the Evidence Act to allow interviews via audio, visual recordings to be admissible in court.
“We also want power to preserve the scene of a crime. Many times if we are called by the police to a crime scene, we reach second so we don’t know what has happened before. If we can get to the crime scene and secure it, then we would be able to check for gunshot residue,” West said.
He also called for power to resolve complaints informally through Alternate Dispute Resolution, amendment to the DNA Act, allowing PCA’s trained CSI officer to collect the DNA from the crime scene and amendment to the Coroners Act.