Can police officers investigate their colleagues?
Whilst many have called for an independent body to investigate police shootings, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) George Nicholas believes the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force (RSLPF) is more than capable of doing the job.
Nicholas appeared on CHOICE TV’s ‘Police Insight’ on Tuesday night. Weighing in on the topic shortly after the show began, Nicholas noted that the discussion resurfaces whenever there is a police shooting.
“As to the capability of the police to investigate itself some say it’s not right… we have a very good track record and a lot of success stories to tell as it relates to investigating our own,” he said.
“To say that the police should not be investigating the police or (is) not capable when we do not have another entity to do it, it’s really an unfair statement,” Nicholas added.
Further, he indicated, anyone who is found guilty of committing a crime will not be spared and will face the full extent of the law. And frankly, he said, it does not matter who that individual is.
“I can, off the top off my head, recall about six officers who are presently on suspension having been charged with various criminal offences. Not too long ago there was a trial going on in the high court and a police officer during the trial decided to change his plea to guilty and he was charged for causing the death of another individual. He was represented by one of the top lawyers in Saint Lucia,” the ACP said.
He continued: “Now which lawyer would advise (a police officer), especially a lawyer of that calibre, to plead guilty? That is testimony to the quality not only (of) the investigation, but the evidence that was collected during the investigation and that investigation was done by police officers. We presently have former police officers who are serving time at Bordelaise and those cases were investigated by police officers; we have a very good track record.”
According to him, the RSLPF is always fair when conducting its investigations. He also pointed out that a number of officers are awaiting trial or hearing for various disciplinary breaches.
“I would challenge any entity in Saint Lucia, whether it be the legal fraternity, the Teachers’ Union, the Medical and Dental (Association)… how many of them can say that they have a system in place where they can discipline their members (and) take their members to task? What people have to understand (is) that we investigate crimes and that is regardless of who committed those crimes, whether it be police officers, politicians, whoever,” Nicholas said.
The ACP also discussed other concerns including what appears to be a lack of commitment to various criminal matters on the RSLPF’s end. However, he noted that some issues are more complex than others.
“I think we may (need) an entire show to speak of challenges faced by officers. One that is very prevalent is the hesitation with persons who have witnessed a crime to come forward to give testimony. That is quite a big challenge when you do not have eyewitness testimony. As a result, we have to venture into the sciences to build a case and that brings me to another challenge,” Nicholas said.
“We have a laboratory, but it is not functioning to the extent that we would like it to function. Now I know that a lot of work is being done with the lab in terms of getting it certified and so forth. They are pretty much very close to being fully certified. Hopefully once that is done, we’ll have a fully functioning lab that would be able to process our samples (and) exhibits, so that we can get results in a timely manner, as opposed to having to resort to an overseas agency to get the analysis done for us,” he added.