Police Complaints Committee At Death’s Door

I now have been thrown deeper into that intense feeling of despair now that Commissioner of Police has gone public advocating that he is now waiting on the official report as it is IN THE PROCESS OF UNDERGOING ADJUSTMENTS. I find it is rather strange that this is now being declared three months approaching the eve of the incident. However on the 6th of September the Attorney General publicized that he, the Hon. Prime minister, and the cabinet had received copies of this same report about to be handed to over to the Commissioner. I cant help but feel that somewhere there is a mockery of the justice system being perpetrated by those who are supposed the arbiters of this same system.

Source: BU Family Member Mandela (We think he is the brother of the late I’Akobi Tacuma Maloney)

There has been a lot of debate and mystery surrounding the death of  I’Akobi Tacuma Maloney. Accusations have been flying all over the place, from a former Member of Parliament to ordinary citizens. To be honest we are not sure the Commissioner made the statement above i.e. that Commissioner of Police has gone public advocating that he is now waiting on the official report as it is IN THE PROCESS OF UNDERGOING ADJUSTMENTS…) What we know is that we have become very skeptical about any report submitted to government ever being made public. So many reports have been prepared and submitted to government over the years and the only thing we can agree is that taxpayers had to pay to produce them.

Many countries in order to ensure transparency have established an independent mechanism to investigate police complaints for the obvious reasons. The police force in any country plays the all-important role of maintaining law and order in the country. The management of the police force must ensure that the public confidence in the police force is maintained at all times. Any incident which has the potential to undermine public confidence in the police force must be resolved in the most transparent way possible. The distrust which might follow if it doesn’t can have far-flung implications for maintaining law and order.

In 2004 the Barbados rightly legislated the Police Complaints Authority Act. The failure of the Police Complaints Authority to convene in a meaningful way to date has been the source of concern in many quarters, even more so in the face of increasing complaints against the Royal Barbados Police Force.

Recently the BU household was able to read part of a report which is to be ratified by the Cabinet of Barbados next week and before submission to the United Nations:

In 2004, Parliament passed the Police Complaints Authority Act which created the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) as an independent government agency under the direction of the Attorney General. The decision to establish an independent Police Complaints Authority was taken in recognition of the need to provide an independent civilian body outside the Police Force to receive complaints against Police conduct, and to make decisions on complaints in the interest of justice and transparency. The Inaugural meeting of the Authority took place on June 4, 2004 and since then 178 applications have been filed, including 82 requests for investigation. 25 matters have been concluded and 91 are pending investigation. The membership of the Board of the Authority was increased from five (5) persons, to seven (7) persons in 2006.

What is interesting about the excerpt above, besides the well-known fact that the PCA has not met since 2004 are the 91 cases pending investigation. Are we to believe that the  outstanding matters remain pending to this day? What does this say about the Attorney Generals who were in office during the period of 2005 – 2008?

The BU household urges Attorney General Fruendel Stuart and the government of Barbados to activate the PCA with haste. We also want to suggest that the case of I’Akobi Tacuma Maloney should be placed at the top of the pile.