It may take more than two years for the new Independent Police Complaints Council to be up and running, its chairman said yesterday, brushing aside criticism that it would be a toothless watchdog.
Jat Sew-tong said no staff could be hired until the next financial year and the transition from the existing investigation framework would take 'a few quarters'. He added that he hoped the transitional procedures, including the incorporation of the body - established under the Independent Police Complaints Council Bill, passed by legislators last week - could be completed before his two-year term ended.
Although opposition leaders have criticised the new body as toothless because it has no power to launch its own investigations, Mr Jat said it would be independent of outside influence.
He said that an in-house counsel and additional investigators would be hired to ensure this.
'We will be fair both to the citizens and the police,' he said.
At a meeting of the IPCC, Chief Superintendent Alan Fan Sik-ming of the police complaints and internal investigations branch said there had been 1,339 complaints against the force in the first six months.