SENIOR police officers are being investigated by the Independent Commission of Investigation (INDECOM) for their alleged roles in extra-judicial killings.

INDECOM Commissioner Terrence Williams made the revelation during a press conference at the commission’s Dumfries Road headquarters in Kingston yesterday.

Williams also said officers from Area Three — which comprises Clarendon, Manchester and St Elizabeth — had been arrested for two murders that had initially been reported as homicides committed by civilians.

“The commission intends to consider carefully whether any senior officer permitted, ordered or acquiesced in the activities which led to these killings, and if there is evidence that shows that they did so, to ensure that those matters are put before the proper tribunal for a determination,” he said.

“We do not intend to stop at the police officer on the ground. We intend to take the investigation wherever it leads,” he added.

So far, four cops — constables Collin ‘Chuckie’ Brown, Carl Bucknor, Jerome Whyte, and Detective Corporal Kevin Adams — are charged with murder relating to killings that took place in Clarendon.

Adams has been charged with four murders — Asif Washington in January last year; Andrew Bissoon in September 2011; Sylvester Gallimore in May 2011; and Andrew Trought in February 2012.

Bucknor has also been charged with Bissoon’s murder, while Whyte has also been charged with Trought’s murder.

Brown has been charged with murder in relation to the deaths of Robert ‘Gutty’ Dawkins, Phaebian Dinnal and the double murder of Andrew Fearon and Dwayne Douglas in December 2012.

In addition, Brown has been slapped with conspiracy to murder and wounding with intent charges.

He was arrested in January and INDECOM staff searched the May Pen Police Station and seized several weapons believed to have been used in the alleged murders.

Bucknor, Whyte and Adams appeared in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court last Thursday and were remanded in custody.

INDECOM’s Senior Public Relations Officer Kahmille Reid said investigations were being carried out in relation to nine other murders which were reported as homicides and not fatal shootings.

Williams also revealed that INDECOM staff members have been threatened and that their security was top priority.

“We take the security of our staff very seriously,” he said.

Since the start of the year there have been 40 fatal shootings by police.

INDECOM was established in August 2010 but despite arresting several cops no conviction has been secured as most of the cases are still before the courts.

“It speaks to the backlog in the court system,” Williams said.

He also shed light on the progress of investigations in several controversial shootings.

He said a coroner’s inquest was presently under way in the death of entertainer Robert ‘Kentucky Kid’ Hill who was shot under controversial circumstances by the police at his home in Kingston in December 2009.

Williams said a special expert forensic analysis was done at the scene of the fatal shooting of Diane Gordon, who was cut down in a hail of bullets as she returned home from a wake, while the case involving the shooting death of Immaculate Conception High School student Vanessa Kirkland, at a birthday party on Norman Road, Kingston 13, is before the court.

Six others were shot and injured in that incident.