 | NORML News: DreaD in the House |
 Police Complaints Authority credibility in crisis BY NANDOR TANCZOS, GREEN MP, Norml News Autumn 2004
The credibility of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) is under serious threat. The simmering public discontent at the role and function of the authority that has been bubbling along for a number of years has reached a level that cannot be ignored.
That is why the Green Party opposed the reappointment of Justice Borrin as head of the PCA. It was not an attack on his personal integrity, but simply recognising the massive problem faced by the PCA and the urgent need for a fresh start.
The government has recognised this with the introduction of the Independent Police Complaints Authority Bill to parliament, an attempt to reassure the public about the independence of the authority, and to try to put some investigative grunt into it. Those changes have now been put on hold while we await the outcome of the inquiry into the investigation of rape allegations against the police, and into the police culture current at the time of those allegations. The Greens hope that further changes needed to the PCA legislation will come out of those investigations.
I had the chance to question Judge Borrin at a Select Committee hearing last year. What worried me was that there was no acceptance by him that public unease is anything more than a problem of perception. He refused to accept that there is a substantive problem with the way the Authority conducts its investigations.
Those problems may not be of the Authorities making. The legislation governing the PCA and the significant resource constraints it has faced has meant that complaints against the police are conducted by police officers, often work colleagues and personal friends of the complainee.
It is no surprise that people have formed the conclusion that complaining about the police is a waste of time because it just means "police investigating their mates". For Judge Borrin to believe that this is simply a problem of perception, rather than a significant and systemic bias is a bit of a worry.
Added to those problems is the massive backlog in investigating complaints with delays of such length that investigation seems pointless when it finally comes around.
The only hope the new authority has of holding public confidence is by demonstrating in practise a confident and courageous approach to investigations of complaints against the police. The police have been accused of institutional racism, sexism, bullying, falsifying evidence and intimidatory tactics and those accusations have sometimes been proven. Of equal concern is that there appears to be a strong cover-up culture in the police. If we want a police force that is largely free of corruption, the only way of achieving that is to vigorously investigate and deal with any examples of it. We cannot rely on the police to do that. The natural response of the police, as with any professional body, is to give the benefit of the doubt to its own members. That is why a strong, independent, and vigorous Police Complaints Authority is essential.
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