In a scathing report, Chairman of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA), Justice (retired) William Ramlal has accused Police Commissioner Clifton Hicken (ag) of flagrantly violating the governing act and recommended that President Irfaan Ali put a stop to it.
“It is my recommendation that His Excellency the President makes it clear to the Commissioner of Police that he cannot continue to violate the law…” the PCA Chairman said in his 2022 annual report on the PCA which was tabled in parliament last week.
Reference was made to files done by the Police concerning the deaths of four persons involving police ranks which were never sent to him for investigations as mandated under sections 13 & 14 of the PCA Act.
Ramlall in the report said “these matters were all investigated by the Police in flagrant violation of Section 12, 13 and 14 of the said Act and then later sent to me for my report to be done pursuant to section 15 of the said act which requires me to send this report to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP)”.
“This report can only be done if I supervised the respective investigations, I referred these matters to the DPP informing her that it was impossible to compile my reports in accordance with the specific requirements of Section 15 of the said Act”, he noted.
Ramlall recommended that DPP Shalimar Ali-Hack, return all these matters to the Commissioner of Police Clifton Hicken (ag) since the police force clearly did not follow the procedures outlined in Sections 12, 13 & 14 of the act.
In this regard he said the Top Cop flagrantly violated sections 12, 13, 14 and 15 of the Police Complaints Authority Act.
The Top Cop when contacted by this newspaper yesterday for a comment promised to respond but up to press time had not done so.
Section 12 of the PCA Act requires the Police Complaints Authority to also investigate complaints or information in relation to any member of the force unlawfully causing the death of any person or who has committed any offence referred to in sections 48, 49 or 50 of the Criminal Law (Offences) Act.
Under section 13, the PCA is to be notified of any such complaint or information and under section 14 the authority shall supervise such investigation.
Under section 15, the PCA shall, after considering the report of the investigator acting pursuant to a section 12 complaint or information, submit to the Director of Public Prosecutions a statement containing whether the investigation was conducted to the Authority’s satisfaction or whether it was dissatisfactory.
A copy of this statement by the PCA must be forwarded to Minister of Home Affairs & Commissioner of Police.
In deciding whether or not to prosecute any person for any offence pursuant to the complaint or information under Section 12, the DPP must regard the statement of the PCA.
Ramlall in his report flagged the Top Cop for violating Section 9(3) of this act by failing to seek the PCA’s comments as to whether any charges of misconduct should be instituted against any police rank.
According to him, the Top Cop also violated Section 9(4) of the said act by not seeking the PCA’s comments prior to imposition of any penalty on any member of the force.
“The Commissioner has never contacted nor consulted the Authority on any of these matters and the Commissioner is statutorily obligated / mandated to do so”, Ramlall contended.
There were a few instances where members of the force were criminally charged but are yet still on duty rather than being interdicted in keeping with the Force’s Standing Orders.
Of the 17 members of the force against whom disciplinary charges were recommended no complaint was heard by the Police Discipline Authority in accordance with the Police Discipline Act or the Police Complaints Authority Act.
Against this background Justice Ramlal concluded that the police force is covering up the wrongdoing of its ranks.
The PCA in 2022 received a total of 194 complaints against ranks of the police force, according to Ramlal’s report.
In 2021 the PCA was in receipt of 220 complaints against police ranks and 237 in 2020.
Justice Ramlal, in his 2022 annual report, noted that of the 194 complaints received, 52 were closed after preliminary investigations. Among these were four cases during which civilians were fatally shot by the Police.
The four cases include the killing of 23-year-old Quindon Bacchus who was shot on June 10, 2022 at Haslington New Scheme, East Coast of Demerara during a Police operation.
Lance Corporal, Kristoff DeNobrega was slapped with a murder charge while former Police Sergeant, Dameion Mclennon and former Lance Corporal, Thurston Simon were charged separately for wilfully attempting to obstruct the course of justice by giving false information to the Police during the course of the investigation into Bacchus’ death.
Following an investigation by the Police Complaints Authority, three police ranks were criminally charged.
The retired justice also in his report said the Guyana Police Force is still investigating matters which fall under the statutory purview of Sections 8 and 12 of the Police Complaints Authority Act Cap 17:02.
Interview
Ramlal said that his investigations under Section 8 and 12 of the PCA had caused him to interview over 300 police from the rank of Senior Superintendent of Police to Rural Constable, inclusive of Community police.
“These interviews have established that not one police rank showed knowledge of the Force’s Standing Orders in its entirety or even in a substantial way. Likewise, all of these ranks have shown very little knowledge of the fundamental rights of all citizens which are clearly written in Articles 138 to 153 of the Constitution”, Ramlal said. He added that these ranks have shown that they do not have a working knowledge of key laws such as the Summary Jurisdiction (Offences) Act, the Administration of Justice Act, the Evidence Act and the Sexual Offences Act.
