Inquiry clears policeman who hitched lift with crash driver

A policeman has been cleared of wrongdoing after he took a free ride back to the station with a taxi driver involved in a road accident he was investigating.

However, a body handling the complaint and an independent police watchdog both warned that frontline officers must be impartial and avoid accepting any advantage from the public.

An Independent Police Complaints Council meeting heard yesterday that a minibus driver filed a complaint to the Complaints Against Police Office (Capo) after he was convicted of careless driving following a collision with the taxi in Ngau Tau Kok.

The complainant said the policeman accepted a lift from the taxi driver after attending the scene - an act he thought inappropriate because the policeman might talk about the collision with the taxi driver during the ride.

Capo found that while handling the accident, the officer had been told by a colleague to return to his police station to perform other duties.

With no transport, the officer asked the taxi driver for a lift as he realised the driver would pass the station on his way to a garage.