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SCMP Reporter

HONG Kong's ombudsman has called for the Complaints Against Police Office (CAPO) be to headed by a civilian in order to win public confidence.

  The Commissioner for Administrative Complaints, Arthur Garcia, made his comments in response to the Government's suggestion to upgrade the Police Complaints Committee (PCC).

   At present, police complaints are handled by CAPO, which submits investigation reports to the PCC, a monitoring committee appointed by the Governor.

  The system has been widely criticised by legislators, who claim CAPO habitually favours the police and the PCC is a mere advisory body unable to conduct proper monitoring.

  The Secretary for Security, Alistair Asprey, has proposed turning the committee into a statutory body and appointing lay observers to sit in on the investigation process. The committee will also be empowered to interview witnesses.

  Mr Garcia, who has been an ex officio member of the PCC since 1989, said these changes would not be enough to win public confidence.

  ''CAPO should be headed by a civilian so that it will be seen by the public as an independent body,'' he said.

  At present CAPO is headed by a chief superintendent assisted by a senior superintendent.

  ''Though the present officers working in the CAPO wear plain clothes, they'll still be transferred back to the force,'' he said.

  However, he said it was impractical to make the office independent from the police force before 1997, despite legislators' calls.

  ''It will take time to train investigators. Before 1997? I don't think it's feasible.''   Commenting on the present investigation work, Mr Garcia said that from his experience police in the complaints unit had pledged to be impartial in most cases.

  ''In many cases they are impartial,'' he said, ''but sometimes it is very difficult when the investigator knows the person who is being complained about.''   He suggested clear guidelines should be laid down to avoid investigators handling cases which involve people with whom they are acquainted.

  Deputy chairman of the PCC, legislator Man Sai-cheong, said he was not satisfied with the changes the Government was willing to make and said the proposals were announced without properly consulting members of the committee.

    Legislation required to turn the PCC to a statutory body would not come before 1995, he said.

  ''So we have to wait two years more. That's too slow, considering the level of public discontent about the present system,'' he said.

  He said the reforms should be more in-depth to make police directly accountable to the public, and not their colleagues in the complaints unit only.

       The complaints office and its monitoring committee were overburdened by minor cases and bound by many outdated conventions, Mr Man said.

  ''For example, the CAPO doesn't handle complaints against off-duty policemen. And it will not handle complaints made by a civil servant against a policeman.''   He said the PCC would discuss the Government's proposals this month.



Call for civilian to head CAPO