INDECOM tussle - Justice minister, human-rights groups, police in wrangle over watchdog
Published:Friday | July 24, 2020 | 12:28 AMRomario Scott/Gleaner Writer
Human-rights advocates are deeply disappointed with the Government’s decision to not go ahead with a recommendation to give the Independent Commission of Investigations powers to arrest and prosecute the police autonomously.
This as Terrence Williams has accused the Holness administration of bowing to behind-the-scenes lobbying by the police.
Justice Minister Delroy Chuck announced in Parliament on Tuesday the administration’s intention to expand the functions of INDECOM to facilitate the sharing of information with other parties such as government agencies, special coroners, commissions of enquiry, and the security forces.
But INDECOM will not be given the powers to prosecute police autonomously.
Human-rights advocate Susan Goffe said that she supported the gifting of prosecutorial powers that was recommended in a 2015 joint select committee report.
“In stating that he has changed his position, Minister Chuck has said he has based his decision primarily on the belief that the increase in staffing at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions will allow for the sufficient and timely decision on the files sent by INDECOM,” she said.
Goffe expressed concern that Chuck did not present any data to Parliament to support that assertion.
Former Justice Minister Mark Golding told The Gleaner on Thursday that his own position on giving INDECOM prosecutorial powers remained unchanged.
DPP Paula Llewelyn told The Gleaner that one prosecutor from her office had been assigned as a liaison to INDECOM.
She disclosed that a second would be assigned as she maintained that INDECOM did not require autonomous powers of prosecution.
In 2015, a joint select committee of Parliament was established to review the INDECOM Act and its operations. Among other things, the committee recommended, consistent with the ruling of the Full Court, that the INDECOM Act be amended to explicitly give the watchdog prosecutorial privileges.
Section 28 of the INDECOM Act will be amended to expressly compel members of the security forces or specified officials to serve notices.
The Jamaica Police Federation has taken the Government to task for proposing to grant immunity to INDECOM when it exceeded, in good faith, its powers in arresting and prosecuting police personnel.
INDECOM desisted from prosecuting police after 2013 when the federation launched legal proceedings but resumed those actions in 2014 after a Full Court judgment. It again ended such prosecutions in 2018 after a Court of Appeal ruling in favour of the police.
The Privy Council confirmed this ruling in May 2020.
According to the federation, the Government is using INDECOM as a weapon against the police.
“If this motion is supported, it is a clear demonstration that the Government does not have the best interest of our members at heart and by their actions have eroded our trust in their ability to ensure that the rights of those who place their lives on the line daily are not abrogated,” the federation said.