In excess of 200 complaints have been lodged against police officers for the year, the head of the Complaints and Corruptions Branch of the Royal Bahamas Police Force John Ferguson has estimated.
According to Superintendent Ferguson, only a small fraction of those complaints related to allegations of police brutality by officers who are typically on the front lines of the fight against crime.
He made the disclosure while giving an assurance that any allegation made against the police force will be thoroughly investigated.
“When citizens complain, the police have an obligation to respond to those complaints,” said Mr. Ferguson. “All complaints will be properly investigated.”
The Royal Bahamas Police Force is expected to release firm statistics on these matters in its traditional press briefing on crime for 2005.
Several police officers have been arraigned on various charges for the year on a range of criminal infractions. Others are being investigated by the Police Tribunal for breach of procedure and risk disciplinary action being taken against them.
Although declining to speak to any specific matter that is being investigated, Mr. Ferguson disclosed that in the past certain officers have been brought before the tribunal for assaulting persons during the course of an arrest that was determined to be unjustifiable.
But he pointed out that due process must be followed before any conclusions are made.
“We don’t want to assume or come to the conclusion that a person was abused or hurt or injured justifiably while an officer was effecting an arrest, so its very important that we look at all of these complaints and all of these arrests so that we can have an objective and fair conclusion of what we are doing.
Mr. Ferguson maintained that the branch has made tremendous inroads in weeding our corruption from the police force.
Earlier in the year, in what was viewed as a landmark ruling, The Privy Council in London reversed a Court of Appeal decision, which had substantially reduced the award of damages to an American woman, who sued Bahamian police for battery and malicious treatment nearly two decades ago.
It paved the way for Tamara Merson to be awarded more than $300,000 as had been ordered by a Supreme Court judge.
Merson won her case in the Supreme Court back in March 1994 and Justice Joan Sawyer awarded her $8,160 by way of special damages; $90,000 damages for assault, battery and false imprisonment; $90,000 damages for malicious prosecution and $100,000 for the contraventions of her constitutional rights.
Justice Sawyer found that the police had behaved in a callous, unfeeling, high-handed, insulting and malicious and oppressive manner both with respect to the arrest and false imprisonment as well as the malicious prosecution.
Additionally, an 18 year old male alleged recently that four police officers battered him for 48 hours while he was in police custody.
That complaint is also being investigated.
Back in 2003, authorities reported that the Complaints and Corruption Branch received almost a quarter less complaints about police officers in 2003 than in the previous year.
There were a total of 302 complaints made against police officers in 2003, compared to 398 in 2002, representing a reduction of 24 percent.
In 2002, there were 31 reported cases related to corruption; however, last year there were 20 cases reported, reflecting a 35 percent decrease.
Supt. Ferguson had attributed the decline in part to what he referred to as “the proactive approach” taken by the branch in educating civilians on their rights and instilling in officers a mandate to perform their duties within the confines of the law.
In the past, special courses for officers who had an excessive amount of complaints against them had been initiated.
By: Tameka Lundy, The Bahama Journal
