THE POLICE COMPLAINTS AUTHORITY MAY SOON have its own team of investigators that would bypass members of the Police Force in an effort to remove suspicions about the transparency of inquiries into police wrongdoing.
According to Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite, there was definitely a need to look at the staffing support of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) which was established in 2001 to bring a level of independence to investigations of complaints against the police.
However, Brathwaite, Member of Parliament for St Philip South, told the House of Assembly yesterday that the body which is headed by a former High Court Judge still depended on police officers to investigate the complaints and return their findings to the PCA for adjudication.
In this connection, he noted that the PCA and members of the public were sometimes distressed by the length of time it took for the police to complete investigations of the conduct of their own.
However, the Attorney General and Minister of Home Affairs said Government was now looking at the legislation to see how it could be adjusted so that the PCA would not have to rely on the Police Force to conduct investigations for it.
