THE police’s Professional Standards Branch (PSB) has identified at least four of the cops believed to be involved in Monday’s alleged beating of former People’s National Party (PNP) caretaker for North Central St Andrew, Dr Jephthah Ford.

“.We will be calling them in to give their account of the incident,” Superintendent Dayton Henry of the PSB told the Observer yesterday. “There could be more involved,” he added.

“The investigations are progressing. We are getting statements from people who witnessed the altercation at one point or another,” said Henry, adding that the PSB’s aim is to determine whether the cops used excessive force to arrest Dr Ford.

“But we have not gotten a chance to record Dr Ford’s or his sister’s statement, but his lawyer, who has been in contact with us, said that she will advise us as to when we can get the statement,” said Henry.

The PSB, he said, had also collected forensic samples, which were being processed.

At the same time, Henry said the former politician, who was still being treated at hospital yesterday, was granted station bail in the sum of $100,000, after being charged with illegal possession of firearm and assault.

It was not clear yesterday if Ford was under police guard in hospital before he was granted station bail.

Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas on Monday ordered a probe into the incident after Dr Ford was hospitalised following a dispute with police officers who were allegedly working as security staff at the Wet Wet Reggae Soca Affair at the Fun City Beach in St Catherine, which Ford operates under a lease arrangement.

Meantime, Security Minister Peter Phillips, who is awaiting a report regarding the alleged beating, warned yesterday that any breach of the police’s use of force policy by its members would not be tolerated.

“There is a use of force policy and any breach of it will be treated as a most serious issue,” Phillips told the Observer. “Police are undertaking investigations and I await those investigations, particularly those of the Professional Standards Branch, and I will hear from the commissioner when they are completed.

“Every Jamaican citizen – Dr Ford and everybody else – has the right to be treated with respect and to have all their human rights respected at all times,” said Phillips.

The Opposition Jamaica Labour Party’s spokesman on national security, Derrick Smith, said he hoped that the alleged beating of Ford, his former political opponent, would turn a spotlight in the direction of the behaviour of some members of the police force.

“What I would want to believe, notwithstanding the circumstances, if there was professional behaviour on the part of the police, then it ought to be a lot different,” Smith said. “We have had many, many stories about police brutality and the unprofessional way in which they carry out their duties. I have witnessed that myself. I have not been a victim, not yet, and it is unfortunate that this has happened,” Smith told the Observer yesterday.