MOLLY MEACHER, Deputy chairman of the English and Welsh Police Complaints Authority, has underscored the need for the local police to preserve crime scenes to ensure proper investigations.
Addressing journalists at a breakfast meeting at Le Meridien Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, New Kingston on Thursday, Ms. Meacher, who is experienced in supervising police investigations where members of the public have been killed by the police, said the preservation of crime scenes was "critical to determining what happened" during controversial shootings.
She is in Jamaica to meet with the top brass of the police force, members of the judiciary, Ministry of National Security officials and private sector interests.
The British expert said she will be recommending that her Government provide training to the local police in firearm techniques, the preservation of crime scenes and how to deal with bodies at these scenes.
Ms. Meacher said it is mandatory for reports to be made to the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) in her country.
"If the shooting occurred in a particular area of Wales, it is automatic that the police investigations would not be headed by an officer from the same area. So when a shooting occurs, two telephone calls are made, one to the PCA and another to a senior police officer from another area," Ms. Meacher said.
She told the meeting that when the PCA supervises an investigation, as many as 30 individuals work on each case. According to her, the law allowed the PCA to recommend which police officers are to be charged or which are to be brought in for further investigation. The PCA may also recommend punitive sanctions.
Local individuals have acknowledged that there is a need for more specialised training for individuals investigating crime scenes, and the UK would be doing what they could, by recommending assistance for training, she said. It was important that local investigators talk to the public at different stages of investigations, so they can know what was going on.
Ms. Meacher and Det. Supt. Trevor Davies, a homicide investigator from the Thames Valley Police in England, have come to Jamaica as part of a follow-up to the visit of Baroness Patricia Scotland last year.
Last year, during Baroness Scotland's visit, it was revealed that the British Government had placed a ban on an order of firearms for the Jamaica Constabulary Force. The British government said it was concerned about the homicide record of the local police. Following the visit in January this year of U.K. cabinet minister Dr. Marjorie Mowlam the ban was lifted.
