DPP: I’m No Avenging Angel

Nearly half the cas­es of sus­pect­ed crim­i­nal con­duct by police per­son­nel that were reviewed by the nation’s chief pros­e­cu­tor between April and June this year came back with a rec­om­men­da­tion that no charges be laid.

According to sta­tis­tics released yes­ter­day, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) hand­ed down 56 rul­ings over the three-month peri­od. In 17 of those rul­ings, the DPP rec­om­mend­ed no crim­i­nal or depart­men­tal charges for the police per­son­nel involved and sug­gest­ed only “depart­men­tal action” in eight cases.

Criminal action was rec­om­mend­ed in 15 of the rul­ings, while 12 cas­es were referred to the Coroner’s Court.

It was a sim­i­lar sto­ry for the cor­rup­tion-relat­ed cas­es reviewed by the DPP last year. The sta­tis­tics show that of the 39 rul­ings hand­ed down, 13 rec­om­mend­ed no crim­i­nal charges for police per­son­nel who were inves­ti­gat­ed, and sev­en sug­gest­ed “depart­men­tal action.”

Criminal charges were rec­om­mend­ed in 19 cases.

The rul­ings were hand­ed down in cas­es referred by the Bureau of Special Investigations, the Criminal Investigations Branch, the Inspectorate of the Constabulary, the Independent Commission of Investigations, and the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse.

Chief pros­e­cu­tor Paula Llewellyn, how­ev­er, bris­tled at sug­ges­tions that the sta­tis­tics indi­cate that her office was being soft on cops and defend­ed the integri­ty of the office.

“It is not our func­tion to be an aveng­ing angel in the soci­ety and to have some sort of meter where we say at the end of every quar­ter we have a quo­ta that we have to meet when it comes to one set of peo­ple as opposed to the oth­er,” Llewellyn told The Gleaner.

Maintain Very High Ethical Standards

“We have, at all times, the oblig­a­tion to main­tain very high eth­i­cal stan­dards. If the par­tic­u­lar thresh­old in respect of a rea­son­able prospect of con­vic­tion is not met when you look at the evi­den­tiary mate­r­i­al, it is uneth­i­cal to use extra­ne­ous fac­tors … to come to an adverse deci­sion on whether to pros­e­cute or not to pros­e­cute,” she reasoned.

“Our assess­ment must be and is objec­tive,” Llewellyn underscored.

She also insist­ed that she was “com­fort­able” with the sta­tis­tics, which show that in near­ly 50 per cent of the cas­es reviewed by her office dur­ing the first quar­ter of the cur­rent finan­cial year, mem­bers of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) were either exon­er­at­ed or giv­en a slap on the wrist.

The sta­tis­tics from the DPP’s office also show that there has been no ease in the back­log of cas­es that have clogged the Home Circuit Court and the rur­al Circuit Courts.

According to the sta­tis­tics, 487 cas­es are to be brought over from the Easter ses­sion of the Home Circuit Court to the Michaelmas term, which is set to com­mence on September 16. A break­down of these cas­es shows that 329 are for mur­der, 62 are for rape, 14 for car­nal abuse, 10 for incest, nine for bug­gery, and sev­en for sex­u­al inter­course with a per­son under the age of 16.

For the rur­al Circuit Courts, 632 cas­es are to be trans­ferred to the new term.
Story orig­i­nat­ed here : DPP: I’m No Avenging Angel