THE Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM), the organisation formed recently to investigate fatal shootings and reports of abuse by other agents of the State, should have its full complement of staff by year end.

INDECOM should by that time take charge of all investigations into alleged violations against members of the public by the police from the Bureau of Special Investigations (BSI), the arm of the Jamaica Constabulary Force with responsibility for these investigations.

INDECOM Commissioner Terrence F Williams made the disclosure Thursday night while fielding questions at the Rotary Club of Liguanea weekly meeting at Eden Gardens in Kingston.

Williams, who had spoken on the touchy issue of extra-judicial killings, said that the full complement of 32 investigators and four crime scene technicians should be in place by the end of December.

The commissioner said that INDECOM currently has 12 investigators. He told the Observer that the recruitment and training exercise is currently on track to meeting the deadline.

"We are currently in an arrangement to build our investigative capacity," Williams said earlier during the meeting. "When we build up our rank to 36 investigators and crime scene technicians, then we can ask the BSI to stop taking on cases. That will be by the end of the year."

INDECOM began operating earlier last month after Williams was sworn in as commissioner in the latter part of July. But at the outset, the organisation was without any investigators and was relegated to supervising BSI investigations. The staff of the Police Public Complaint Authority was shortly after merged with INDECOM.

He said the BSI had informed him that there are about 30 cases of police shootings per month.

INDECOM has since taken on a number of cases, including the fatal shootings of chartered accountant Keith Clarke in May. Clarke was killed at his Kirkland Heights home in upper St Andrew by members of the security forces who were hunting for Christopher 'Dudus' Coke in May. Coke, the former Tivoli Gardens don, has since been extradited to the United States where he is awaiting trial on drug and gun-trafficking charges.

INDECOM is also investigating the fatal shooting of entertainer Robert 'Kentucky Kid' Hill on December 8, 2009 at his Ivy Green Crescent home in St Andrew.

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