THE Police Federation forked out ‘a burdensome’ $10 million for legal fees last year, representing 60 per cent of dues collected, to defend cops against criminal charges.

The legal expenses are higher than the $10 million, but the costs of several high- profile cases are yet to be fully calculated and accounted for.

The charges levelled against cops arose out of cases in which police officers were accused of murder, shooting, robbery, bribery, fraud, rape, wounding, assault and misdemeanours.

“For the 2004/2005 year the federation has paid out greater than $10 million in legal fees for our members who have been charged in the courts,” said federation general secretary Corporal Hartley Stewart.

The figure does not include legal fees paid out for the much publicised Crawle killings in Clarendon, where six policemen – five of them federation members – have been charged with murder; as well as the Braeton 7 case where five policemen were eventually acquitted of charges that they murdered seven young males in the St Catherine community.

The Crawle murders is scheduled for trial in September.

The Police Federation is an association of rank and file officers up to the rank of inspector, amounting currently to some 7,000 policemen and women.

Members, say Observer sources, pay a monthly $200 fee through salary deductions, under a plan overseen by the national security ministry, the agency responsible for police salaries.

The deductions amount to $1.4 million per month or $16.8 million per annum.

Some 50 cops were picked up for crimes last year, but the Observer was unable to obtain a breakdown of their ranks, nor establish the numbers that actually got help from the federation.

Stewart said that the money paid out for legal fees are a burden on the federation’s coffers, adding however that it was a burden the federation was obliged to bear.

The federation, he said, has a legal obligation to represent cops arrested and charged with any offence committed in the line of duty.

Asked whether any of the 13 policemen implicated in the recent car stealing ring would be given legal assistance, Stewart said none of the alleged offenders had approached the federation for help.

But federation sources told the Observer that it was hardly likely that the federation’s help would be sought, noting that the ‘in the line of duty’ test might be hard to establish.

Stewart explaining the process by which members apply for financial assistance, said the cop must be charged with an offence committed while on duty; the federation ‘thoroughly investigates the matter’; and, after satisfying itself that certain internal criteria has been met, will then approve the request.

Although Stewart did not say how many cops charged with criminal offences were provided with legal assistance during the period under review, head of the Bureau of Special Investigation (BSI) assistant commissioner Granville Gause said 50 cops were arrested last year and charged with various criminal offences.

He revealed that of this number, 34 accused cops still have cases pending in the courts, 15 have been acquitted, and one policeman was convicted on an assault charge.

Gause also confirmed that another nine police officers who were investigated following their alleged involvement in various matters since January, have been taken before the courts after being indicted, based on evidence placed before the Director of Public Prosecutions.