COMPLAINTS made by the public against the police seem to be coming from an older age group than previously, according to the latest annual report from the Police Public Complaints Authority (PPCA).

The Authority’s 2005/2006 report, which was only tabled in Parliament last Tuesday, says that persons in the age group 31-40 years old, made 106 complaints against the police during that year, up from 91 the year before.

They edged out the 21-30 age group, whose complaints fell from 136 the previous year to 103. There were 339 complaints in all for the year.

But the majority of complaints continued to be against members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), ranked corporal and below, although the figure declined by 21 per cent to 244.

Complaints against inspectors and sergeants increased by 58 per cent, from 43 to 68, and those against assistant superintendents and above increased by 55 per cent from 11 to 17.

Complaints against special constables had a slight increase from 28 to 30, unidentified policemen from 20 to 23 and those against district constables fell from 28 to 18.

Assault was the main action complained of, totalling 164. Conduct unbecoming followed with 137 complaints and abuse of power increased from 19 to 28.

Despite a decrease from 137 to 108, complaints from Kingston and St Andrew continued to top the list followed by St James. But Portland showed a marked increase from five to 12.

Only 39 complaints were submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), 11 more than the previous year, including 32 assault cases and three for fatal shootings.

Six resulted in no criminal charges being advised; one resulted in internal departmental action being advised; two resulted in criminal charges being advised; and 23, including the three fatal shooting cases, were still to be ruled on by the DPP when the report was compiled.

In addition to the 339 complaints made in 2005/2006, 239 were carried forward from 2004/2005 making a total for investigation of 578.