WITH the power to arrest any police officer found culpable of criminal conduct, especially when a civilian’s death is involved, Britain’s Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is a powerful guardian of the rights of citizens in that European territory.

Operating with a budget of just over £30m (J$4.02b) and a staff complement of 400, including lawyers and other skilled professionals, the IPCC also has powers to seize the assets of individuals it investigates, according to one of its commissioners, Mike Franklin, who addressed the Observer Press Club on Thursday.

Franklin, one of nine commissioners in the IPCC — and the only black man in that position — said the commission investigates police from the lowest to the highest rank without fear or favour under the protection of the Police Reform Act (2002), which guarantees the body’s independence.

“In the UK, all police shootings are investigated independently by the IPCC. That requires, depending on the circumstance, a fair amount of resources,” Franklin said.

He was in the island last week to speak with stakeholders, including human rights officials and the new head of the IPCC’s Jamaican parallel, the Independent Commission of Inquiry (INDECOM), Terrence Williams.

“We are almost like non-executives with executive powers. Our investigators have full police powers — powers of arrest, powers to seize property, powers to secure communication, and powers to listen in on conversations,” Franklin disclosed.

He noted that the UK does not have the scale of police shootings as Jamaica, although police officers there face real challenges.

“Police officers do a difficult job, a dangerous job, oftentimes having to deal with very dangerous and difficult circumstances. But the underlying point is that they are sworn, they take an oath of office, and that oath means that they should be committed to uphold the law, protecting the public,” Franklin said.

However, he stressed that when an individual is killed at the hand of the state, justice must not only be done, but must be seen to be done.

“That means that when we do an investigation relating to shooting, the questions that are raised by families or people connected to the person who has died are answered,” Franklin said.

Compared to INDECOM’s handful of staff, Franklin said the IPCC’s 400 employees are spread across offices in different parts of the country. He is based at the commission’s headquarters in London where he has portfolio responsibility for probing allegations involving persons held in police custody.

The IPCC, he said, has nine commissioners who oversee investigations of road traffic fatalities involving the police, corruption, suicides of persons in custody and allegations of excess force and sexual assault by police officers and circumstances where an individual is killed at the hands of the state.

Other issues dealt with include complaints involving young people and stop and search procedures.

“We employ around 140 investigators, some of whom are former police officers. We go through a process, which I describe as ‘de-policing’, to make sure that their values and practices are consistent with the values of the IPCC,” Franklin explained. “We employ lawyers, which is necessary, because there are often challenges on decisions.”

Others in the commission’s employ include case-work managers, administrative staff, as well as a human resource and research department.

Franklin said the IPCC was appointed by the Secretary of State and was required by law to file an annual report to Parliament.

Commissioners appoint investigating officers and the terms of reference are set for each case. Commissioners sign off on reports when they are satisfied that investigations are properly done, he said.

During his address to the Observer Press Club Franklin made clear that he did not come to Jamaica to tell officials how to do their jobs, but said that he was not sure if the 12 investigators assigned to INDECOM would be sufficient, given Jamaica’s high number of police killings.

In the UK, he explained, police officers are required to make detailed documentation on taking someone into custody.

They are also investigated for harm done to, or caused by an individual while in custody, including early releases which lead to injury of the individual or the individual causing injury to anyone else.

When Prime Minister Bruce Golding announced the establishment of INDECOM to conduct independent investigations into police shootings, plus other issues involving the state’s security, he said the body would eventually assume some of the functions of the police Bureau of Special Investigation (BSI) and the independent Police Public Complaints Authority (PPCA).

Currently the BSI probes all fatal shootings by the police, while the PPCA hears grouses and collects witness statements from the public on police fatalities or other offences by state security forces.

Two weeks ago, the prime minister defended the $10-million salary of the head of the threemonth-old INDECOM, explaining that the body was in a transitional phase, with the staff of the PPCA being recently transferred to the new body.

Human rights officials have long decried the current set up involving the BSI, claiming that the police force cannot credibly investigate itself.

Vigorous lobbies have been mounted by these groups, the most established being Jamaicans For Justice, against increasing civilian fatalities at the hands of the state security forces.

Other lobby groups include the Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights and Families Against State Terrorism.