INDECOM Report on Assault Allegations by Law Enforcement

Assault allegations and claims from citizens against law enforcers has been quite frequent in the past few months and the Independent Commission of Investigations, (INDECOM) has done a report on the matter. Head of INDECOM Hugh Faulkner, joined the CVM Live Panel Discussion to share more on the topic.

In a response to his assessment of the data points, Faulkner noted that INDECOM’s second quarterly review had focused on assaults for the period of 2020 and the findings showed in 2020 there were more assaults, 394 complaints in comparison to the previous 4 to 5 years, which all fell under 300, which means there was an increase.

The head of the Commission noted that from their assessment they have concluded that due to the Disaster Risk Management Act, (DRMA), there were more instances of law enforcers, especially members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, (JCF) coming in contact with more citizens. These interactions would include alleges of breaking the various curfew orders, citizens not wearing masks, gathering in excess of the expected numbers. He added that there has been roughly a 41 percent increase in assaults over the previous year.

Mr. Faulkner stated that in terms that the patterns they have observed, a number of the assault allegations were because the police was intent on making an arrest. He added that in 32 percent of the cases reported that this was the reason, while 29 percent of the cases were either because of a traffic stop or a stop and search by the police.