Beckles renews call for stronger PCA powers after police shooting

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les is again call­ing for stronger pow­ers for the Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty (PCA) fol­low­ing the po­lice shoot­ing in­volv­ing Ka­ia Sealy and Joshua Sama­roo.

In a state­ment, Beck­les called on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to move im­me­di­ate­ly to amend leg­is­la­tion to im­prove the PCA’s pow­ers and in­ves­ti­ga­to­ry pro­ce­dures, us­ing Ja­maica’s In­de­pen­dent Com­mis­sion of In­ves­ti­ga­tions (IN­DE­COM) as a mod­el.

She said the changes should al­low mea­sures such as pre­serv­ing ev­i­dence at po­lice shoot­ing scenes and giv­ing PCA per­son­nel im­me­di­ate ac­cess fol­low­ing in­ci­dents in­volv­ing po­lice killings.

Beck­les al­so re­newed the Op­po­si­tion’s call for leg­is­la­tion man­dat­ing body-worn cam­eras for law en­force­ment agen­cies au­tho­rised to use force.

“Leg­is­la­tion re­lat­ing to the PCA and the use of body cam­eras will en­sure trans­paren­cy, ac­count­abil­i­ty and pro­tec­tion for both of­fi­cers and civil­ians alike,” she said.

She crit­i­cised Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der’s de­ci­sion to can­cel the pro­cure­ment of body cam­eras and ques­tioned the lack of pub­lic in­for­ma­tion on the is­sue.

Beck­les said im­proved PCA pow­ers and body cam­eras would strength­en trans­paren­cy and pub­lic con­fi­dence in po­lice op­er­a­tions.

“No cit­i­zen should have to won­der if we live in an unchecked po­lice state,” she said.