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Police watchdog enhanced
The Independent Police Complaints Council Observers Scheme has been expanded to include Lay Observers.
It will now also cover observations of Informal Resolution interviews with complainants and complainees conducted by Conciliating Officers.
The move is to enhance the monitoring function of the body and to demonstrate the impartiality, transparency and accountability of the police complaints system.
IPCC members will be joined by 50 Lay Observers appointed in two batches by the Secretary for Security Regina Ip. The first batch consisting of community leaders, District Fight Crime Committee chairpersons and former IPCC members were appointed on August 31. Additional observers will be added later.
Mrs Ip, Commissioner of Police Eddie Hui Ki-on, and IPCC Chairman Denis Chang Khen-lee officiated at the appointment ceremony. The expanded Scheme was then launched on September 1.
Mrs Ip said the Government decided to expand the Scheme after studying the review by the IPCC on the working procedures of the Complaints Against Police Office, and looking at the complaints systems used in other countries.
Mr Hui said Informal Resolution was an important area of the overall process of complaint investigation. He said it would reinforce the values that support the Force's efforts to reduce complaints against Police, which was one of the key policing strategies into the new millennium.
He said all commanders would provide maximum co-operation to Observers in order to enhance service-orientated policing.