Although the department is still not officially investigating citizen complaints against police officers, the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service indicated Tuesday that it is handling certain “low level” complaints.
“These are complaints where the investigating officer concludes that the necessary action can be taken internally without the need to convene a discipline hearing,” a statement from the RCIPS read, “for example, where an officer is required to be provided with advice or counselling.”
The low level complaint processing came to light following a case filed by local resident Sandra Catron against an RCIPS officer. Following that investigation, police recommended counseling for the officer and his immediate supervisor. No disciplinary action was taken as a result of the probe.
Ms Catron took exception to the decision.
“It’s very sad that the RCIPS prioritises complaints in such a manner,” Ms Catron said. “In my opinion, it dictates from the onset that the matter will not be taken seriously and therefore no action will ever come of it.
“Every complaint filed against a police office should be investigated with the same vigour, proper interrogations and procedure to ensure that bad cops are weeded out of the force.”
The Caymanian Compass reported in October that the RCIPS Professional Standards Unit has not been able to process citizen complaints for some time.
In one such case reviewed by the newspaper, a letter sent to a Cayman Islands resident who made a complaint relating to the actions of certain police officers in Bodden Town back in January 2010 was formally recorded and evidence related to the case has been preserved, according to Royal Cayman Islands Police Service Chief Inspector Harlan Powery.
However, nothing further can be done about the complaint for the time being, according to a letter sent from Mr. Powery to the resident in mid-October. It has now been two years since the complaint was filed.
“Due to a legal challenge to the commissioner of police’s authority to inquire into any complaint arising from a member of the public against a police officer, we are unable to progress your complaint further until a determination is obtained from the Hon. Attorney General,” Mr. Powery’s letter to the January 2010 complainant read.
That situation still persists today, according to the police statement issued Tuesday.
“More serious matters, which require discipline hearings to be convened, remain subject of the legal challenge,” the police statement read. “The status of the legal challenge is expected to be remedied within the near future.”
The nature of the court challenge has never been revealed. Police have also said the department’s internal discipline process was not affected by the court challenge.
In September 2010, legislators approved changes to the Police Law establishing the Police Public Complaints Authority. The general purpose of the authority is hear citizen complaints against police officers.
The law states any findings of the public complaints authority would be reported to the police commissioner or – in cases where criminal offences may have occurred – to the director of public prosecutions.
In most cases, the police commissioner would decide on discipline based on the findings of the authority. The appointed body would have no jurisdiction over internal police discipline matters, only in cases where a private individual had made a police complaint.
The law also creates a three-person panel to hear appeals in instances of certain minor offences involving police discipline.
The appeals advisory panel will include the chief officer of the Portfolio of Internal and External Affairs, a justice of the peace and someone with past experience in the “uniform services” of the Islands. The panel was to be involved only in appeals cases and will not decide initial disciplinary matters. Also, the appeals panel would not become involved in cases where the officer has been fired or had his or her rank reduced.
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These comments are in response to both this news report and a letter written by a well-known Caymanian personality complaining of police harrassment.
When will the citizens of Cayman ever learn that there can be no middle ground in dealing with human rights abuses by the police in Cayman ?
When will the evidence seep through that any institution set up within the RCIPS to handle citizens complaints against its officers will only be a cover-up to trick the public and protect its police officers from punishment ?
That is the nature of the colonialist police force that the RCIPS still is and as the letter writer points out, has implications in colonial sociology, which is still the root of authoritative power in the Cayman Islands; this goes much deeper than the police force itself, which is only expected to carry out the dictates and wishes of those in power.
Citizens of the Cayman Islands must understand that even the slightest of complaints against abuse by members of the RCIPS must be taken up with the Human Rights Commission in a formal manner; also, the Governor’s Office MUST be formally informed as well.
Even if it requires the use of an attorney to file these complaints, this is the only process that will achieve any results or investigation into the complaints themselves.
The RCIPS does not function under the same terms of reference as police forces in Great Britain, which come under the legal supervision of the Independent Police Complaints Commission and the Crown Prosecution Service or police forces in the USA which have functional Internal Audit depts. which independently investigate and prosecute police criminal actions.
With the implementation of a constitutional Bill of Rights in Nov., the legal means of challenging rights abuses by police in Cayman will be strengthened but…
Cayman’s citizens must go the proper routes for police complaints; don’t ever expect the police to police the police in Cayman.
Due to a legal challenge to the commissioner of police’s authority to inquire into any complaint arising from a member of the public against a police officer, we are unable to progress your complaint further until a determination is obtained from the Hon. Attorney General,
What!!!
Internal External affairs should have the responsibilities to police the police..
Their role to name one of the many tasked should be similar to that of the US police internal affairs department..
The UK should not stand for such a disjointed police accountability with their representative being the police commander and chief.
So what the police are really saying in that they decide the outcome of the case before an investigation is even undertaken. Otherwise, how can they determine it’s low-level and would only require counselling!?
Seriously the police need to do better as all they do is undermine themselves and then they wonder why good citizens fail to assist them in doing their JOBS!!! When you protect the bad cops amongst you, no matter how small, you do a HUGE disservice to everyone else on the force.
They need to send better standards for the cops.
Firery, got no problem agreeing with pretty much all of what you say here.
The problem is the UK example of police policing themselves is not one to shout about.
Cheshire Constabulary, the current Commissioner’s former employer, even has a website dedicated to revealing the failings of their Professional Standards Department (PSD). One rather disturbing episode relates to a decision, made by former-Operation Tempura lawyer Martin Polaine some years ago, that a complaint against Cheshire’s PSD could be investigated by the PSD itself rather the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) to whom the matter should had been referred.
In fact, in the UK most serious cases of police misconduct only seem to get settled by the courts long after the internal police investigations have been quietly buried and innocent people unlawfully imprisoned. The credit for sorting things out in most cases goes to dedicated members of legal profession rather than any police officers or review bodies.
MI am not for second disagreeing with your desire to get things changed but I am suggesting caution because what you could end up with might be even worse.
In a small place like the Cayman Islands might it not be better to hand over responsibility for dealing with serious allegations against RCIPS officers to the Governor and the courts? That way matters would be aired in public.
What horse manure!
Truthfinder, that’s exactly what happens in the UK in that the police force itself makes the initial determination on how to handle a complaint. At this stage they can actually decide that it is not a valid complaint and simply dismiss it. If that fails the next stage is often just to sit on the complaint hoping it will go away. This is the crux of the complaints currently being made about Cheshire Constabulary.
The result is that in most cases (not all, there are some here who take these responsibilities seriously) a member of the public with any half-serious grievance against their local police needs to get either lawyered-up or get the media on their side if they want to get anywhere.
There is a book entitled Bent Coppers by Graeme McLagan (Orion 2003) that is well worth reading. It’s a very disturbing insight into UK anti-corruption operations.
When you read through it one of the most significant things is, despite all the hype, how few convictions were ever secured and how many officers were quietly allowed to retire. Now, nearly nine years after that book was written, almost all the high-profile convictions featured have been quashed and a vast amount of evidence has emerged that the original investigations were themselves corrupt but not one of the investigating officers involved has had any action taken against them – in fact most have moved on to well-paid private sector jobs.