AN off-duty policeman, Corporal Carlton Ferguson, says he was severely beaten last week by members of the Island Special Constabulary Force (ISCF) in downtown Kingston after requesting time to provide documents for his motor vehicle.

Ferguson, who is assigned to the Central Police Station, told the Observer yesterday that the abrasions and bruises from the beating and handcuffs forced him to take seven days off from work.

“Some of them thin-skinned. When you tell them that you have five days (to produce motor vehicle documents) them think is ‘dis you a dis them’,” said Ferguson, a 30-year veteran of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

The policeman told the Observer that the incident started when a team of policemen conducting traffic duties stopped him along Temple Lane and requested the papers for his motor vehicle.

“I told them I was a policeman and showed them my ID and they allowed me to go on,” he said.

Another police team, also along Temple Lane, allegedly stopped the policeman again. However, this time they refused to accept Ferguson’s ID, and insisted on seeing the documents for the car.

“It was just about a chain from where the first set stopped me,” Ferguson said.

According to the police corporal, he told the special constables that he had time to provide his documents, and requested an ID from one officer who was without a number on his uniform, causing an argument.

Ferguson said he drove off and proceeded to North Parade where he was intercepted by a special constable on a motorbike who rode in front of his car, causing a minor collision.

According to Ferguson, he was then accosted by about 14 other special constables who proceeded to pull him from his private motor vehicle, handcuff him and beat him all over his body.

“They handcuffed me and was trying to put me in a police car and I resisted,” Ferguson said.

He added that after a tussle, in the presence of an ISCF inspector who arrived at the scene, he was placed in the car and taken to the City Centre Police Station where he was released without charge.

His private car was taken by wrecker to the Lyndhurst Road pound.

“I left the station and went to Central where I made a report,” said Ferguson.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Novelette Grant told the Observer that the matter has, in fact, been reported to the Professional Standards Branch but said that she could make no further comment at this time.

“I don’t have all the facts and I can’t make any comments as the matter is presently under investigation,” said Grant.

“Like anything else there are procedures and the law applies to everybody,” Grant added.

Meanwhile, Dr Shane Dockery of the East Queen Street Medical Centre confirmed treating the policeman, but said he could not divulge any information on his status.

“All I can say is I treated him for injuries on the 14th (of September),” Dockery told the Observer.

Last year May there was public outrage when special constables were caught on camera beating a woman in Half-Way-Tree, St Andrew, while a few days after that a policewoman was beaten by special constables in downtown Kingston for an alleged traffic violation.

And in April this year a special constable fatally shot a 32-year-old mechanic at the Portmore bus stop in Half-Way-Tree, drawing the ire of a senior member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force.