INDECOM boss laments hostility at crime scenes

Commissioner of the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) Terrence Williams is appealing to the public to allow his organisation's investigators to do their jobs at crime scenes.

Williams' call comes after members of his team were pinned down due to a gun battle early yesterday morning while trying to process a crime scene on Karl Samuda Drive in St Andrew, where two brothers had been killed hours earlier.

Roadblocks mounted by irate residents also hindered the INDECOM investigators from getting to safety.

"Whatever INDECOM does - and the police force also in their functions does - we have to have the cooperation of the public," he said. "This must come through public education and public appreciation of what we are doing."

Williams was speaking during an emergency press conference held at INDECOM's headquarters yesterday in response to the incident. He appealed for all persons to "show good sense".

"When you are angered by these shootings, we are there to investigate and to ensure that as much as possible, the truth comes out," he said. "It is not helped when you prevent us from doing so by blocking the roads or [employing] other hostile actions."

Williams noted such incidents were rare, but said this was the second time in two months INDECOM members had ended up in hostile situations.

In June, residents blocked sections of the road in Claremont in St Ann, interrupting their analysis of that scene.

SCENE COULD HAVE BEEN COMPROMISED

Director of Complaints for Kingston and St Andrew, Nigel Morgan, said INDECOM was on the scene of the Karl Samuda Drive shooting within 45 minutes of being called. While acknowledging the crime scene could have been compromised in the hours it took them to return, he said that some helpful forensic material had been collected.

Williams said INDECOM would be reviewing its safety procedures.

"We're happy that no one has been injured at any scene, … but we have to mindful … ," he said.

The INDECOM boss also used the opportunity to introduce the body's new assistant commissioner, Hamish Campbell, who served over two decades as head of the Metropolitan Police homicide unit.

Williams said Campbell was in Jamaica to "improve INDECOM's investigative functions" and to work with them to ensure the body gave "proper service to the country in complete and just investigations".