Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Daarsrean Greene believes any police-related shooting should go before a special investigating agency.
Greene told a news conference Wednesday that such a properly formulated agency would prevent the inordinate delay in bringing matters before the courts.
The DPP summoned the news conference to give an update on the status of longstanding high-profile homicide probes.
They included police killings that occurred during the controversial Operation Restore Confidence (ORC), a crackdown on violent crime between 2010 and 2011.
The DPP pointed to the number of annual indictable matters, noting that murders were in their seventies.
In this regard, he told reporters that there was a deficiency in police human resources to meet the investigations the matters demand.
“Having reviewed the instances of police-related shootings in this state from October of 2016 when I took office, there was clearly and remains a need for the establishment of an independent agency to undertake these investigations,” Greene told the news conference.
He explained that, as in other jurisdictions, such a body would promote transparency and public confidence in a unit separate from the police force.
Greene said a recommendation went to the government and he was aware that Cabinet Conclusion 120 of February 8, 2021, approved the agency’s formation.
He disclosed that it went to the Office of the Attorney General for necessary action.
However, he told reporters that the body had not been formalised and the investigators are still under the command of the Commissioner of Police.
