By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE Police Complaints Inspectorate recommends the government create a more robust administrative system to support the body’s purpose: reviewing the work of the Royal Bahamas Police Force’s complaints and corruption branch.

For years, people have complained about the branch’s failure to respond or resolve their complaints. The Inspectorate is a civilian-led body that, by law, should review the actions and investigations of that branch to ensure proper functioning.

However, the United States has frequently highlighted the lack of information surrounding the Inspectorate’s activities in its annual human rights report.

The Inspectorate, which Tanya McCartney currently chairs, has sent the government recommendations to improve the body, saying it lacks the operational capacity to fulfil its mandate.

The Inspectorate is recommending the government establish a secretariat to provide administrative support.

It wants the government to “ensure that the secretariat is properly resourced” and to “make structural adjustments to promote further transparency, independence and accountability of the Inspectorate”.

The Inspectorate recommends that the secretariat receive complaints from the public for its review; request and receive reports from the complaints and corruption branch; analyse reports prepared by the complaints and corruption branch; collaborate with the chairman of the Inspectorate to set dates and times for meetings; circulate papers for Inspectorate meetings; collect statistics on the number of complaints submitted and resolved; receive complaints from the public for onward transmission to the complaints and corruption branch for further action; and monitor media to identify instances of police maladministration that have not been reported to the Inspectorate.

The Inspectorate wants complaints to be rated according to risk.

“Complaints,” the document says, “should be risk rated (high/medium and low) having regard to but not limited to the following factors: potential legal liability, public interest, media exposure, seriousness of the nature of the complaint being made, the extent to which there was a breach in police protocols, public interest considerations (and) the particular circumstances in which the incident occurred.”

In May, National Security Minister Wayne Munroe said the government is working on legislation establishing an inspectorate for all security forces in The Bahamas.