Di­rec­tor of the Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty (PCA) Gillian Lucky says the au­thor­i­ty needs sim­i­lar in­ves­tiga­tive pow­ers and au­thor­i­ty to those of the po­lice to ful­ly in­ves­ti­gate com­plaints it re­ceives.She said so dur­ing a com­mu­ni­ty out­reach meet­ing at the El Do­ra­do Co-op­er­a­tive Build­ing, El Do­ra­do, on Tues­day evening.

She said when the Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty Act was passed by Par­lia­ment in 2006, es­tab­lish­ing the body, the PCA was not giv­en the nec­es­sary pow­ers and au­thor­i­ty to con­duct in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to al­leged po­lice mis­con­duct and crim­i­nal acts.Lucky added: "In pass­ing the leg­is­la­tion, what was missed out is that it gave a func­tion to the PCA to in­ves­ti­gate, but did not give the same rights, au­thor­i­ty and pow­ers that po­lice of­fi­cers have."

She said those pow­ers in­clud­ed the abil­i­ty to col­lect ev­i­dence and ex­hibits in in­ves­ti­ga­tions as well as in­ter­view­ing wit­ness­es and tak­ing wit­ness state­ments.Lucky said un­der the leg­is­la­tion the PCA was man­dat­ed to in­ves­ti­gate in­stances of crim­i­nal of­fences com­mit­ted by po­lice of­fi­cers, po­lice cor­rup­tion and se­ri­ous mis­con­duct by of­fi­cers.She said the de­fi­cien­cy in the leg­is­la­tion might have been Par­lia­men­tary over­sight.

Lucky on PCA's rolls

Lucky said in oth­er ju­ris­dic­tions, in­clud­ing Ja­maica, bod­ies sim­i­lar to the PCA were ful­ly equipped to in­ves­ti­gate com­plaints and were among the first re­spon­ders to crime scenes re­lat­ed to po­lice killings.She said be­cause the PCA did not have these pow­ers, it was some­times lim­it­ed to sim­ply mon­i­tor­ing po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

Lucky said since be­ing ap­point­ed to the po­si­tion in 2010, she had spo­ken to At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan to ex­plore the pos­si­bil­i­ty of amend­ing the leg­is­la­tion to af­ford PCA in­ves­ti­ga­tors the nec­es­sary au­thor­i­ty and priv­i­leges to in­ves­ti­gate com­plaints.While speak­ing to the mod­est crowd at the meet­ing, Lucky al­so dis­missed claims that the PCA was a tooth­less dog.

She said de­spite some lim­i­ta­tions with which the au­thor­i­ty was faced, it had been able to in­ves­ti­gate sev­er­al com­plaints which have led to crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tions."There are some crim­i­nal mat­ters be­fore the courts right now in which the po­lice had said there was noth­ing wrong and the PCA said no and con­duct­ed its own in­ves­ti­ga­tion," Lucky said.She said the PCA did not have em­ploy­ees who were po­lice of­fi­cers and re­peat­ed­ly main­tained that po­lice of­fi­cers should not in­ves­ti­gate their col­leagues.

Refer­ing to the deaths of Haydee Paul and her daugh­ters who were knocked down in Sea Lots on Feb­ru­ary 24, Lucky said the PCA was un­able to in­ves­ti­gate the ac­ci­dent but was in close con­tact with act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Stephen Williams to mon­i­tor the in­ves­ti­ga­tion.The dri­ver of the ve­hi­cle in­volved in the ac­ci­dent was an off du­ty po­lice of­fi­cer."What we are say­ing is that al­though we can't in­ves­ti­gate, we are play­ing a func­tion­ing role in the in­ves­ti­ga­tion," Lucky said.