Police abuse a serious issue

POLICE abuse is a serious problem.
It has a long history and it seems to defy all attempts to eradicate it.
The problem is national. No police station in the country is known to be completely free of misconduct.
We’d like to see that this situation is not hopeless. Policing has seen progress in some areas.
Today, among officials and rank-and-file officers, it is widely recognised that police brutality hinders good law enforcement.
This week, police internal affairs directorate director Robert Ali issued another call to the public to register reports of police officers involved in brutality cases so that they are investigated.
The National brought to his attention a report of alleged police brutality against a doctor and a company worker who were assaulted by police officers last week.
Ali says the public must understand that there is a way to hold officers accountable for their actions and the people must not be afraid to use it. Ali says the standard procedure is that when a complaint has been lodged at the police station against a police officer who has broken the law, the police station commander or officer in charge will formally charge the officer under the country’s law.
Most victims maybe are afraid of retaliation and some are reluctant to come forward because they view the process as too tedious, going here and there and then not knowing the progress of the investigation or how to do a follow-up.
The complaint must be supported with medical reports and importantly eye-witness statements.
In most cases, the witnesses would be another police officer or officers as they move together.
Other police officers at the scene typically follow the unwritten “code of silence.”
These officers will not report witnessing a fellow police officer punching or kicking a civilian.
So the victims seek justice through the media as it is their only hope of finding out what has happened to their case if they had registered a complaint.
Others see the media as their only hope that if their story is published, the pressure would be on the internal affairs directorate to investigate.
Using the media for most is the only transparent process for them as most of the investigation is totally internal.
The complainant is not given any information until it is concluded.
All police departments have methods of taking civilians’ complaints about police officers. Usually these complaints are referred to as internal affairs complaints.
These complaints are investigated by other police officers.
In larger police departments, there often is a separate division that handles complaints.
There are positive and negative aspects of Internal Complaints.
Filing an internal complaint is the only avenue that can lead to discipline or termination of a police officer other than a criminal conviction of the officer, which, as discussed below, very rarely happens.
Standard practice is even if an internal complaint is not sustained, it usually stays in the officer’s personnel file.
In a properly-run police department, the fact that an officer has attracted a large number of complaints should trigger closer scrutiny.
Most police officers, even those who make many arrests, receive no more than one internal complaint in their entire career.
An officer who receives multiple complaints is doing something differently than other officers.
A complaint is supposed to put the police department on notice of a police officer’s behaviour.
Because police officers work on the street, supervisors do not know how an officer interacts with the public unless members of the public provide feedback.
We note that the negative aspects of internal complaints is that much of the investigation is kept secret from the person who complained. In the uncommon event that an internal investigation recommends significant discipline after a serious act of police misconduct, the discipline is not always upheld.
The public must know the procedures involved in reporting police misconduct so they understand what happens.
A public awareness programme has to be conducted around the country so citizens know their rights, what to do and say when confronted with police brutality and how to help themselves prepare when lodging a report at the internal affairs.
The public must know the internal process that takes place after a report has been filed.
At the end of the year, the directorate must make available reports on how many complaints were received and the outcome.