GUARDIAN ME­DIA NEWS­ROOM

The Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty (PCA) has ini­ti­at­ed in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to the col­lapse of two court cas­es in­volv­ing po­lice of­fi­cers this week.

Twelve of­fi­cers re­port­ed­ly were dis­charged be­cause the rules of court pro­ce­dure were not fol­lowed, there were no pros­e­cu­tion wit­ness­es, and ev­i­dence was not pro­duced by the po­lice to the court.

In a state­ment, the PCA said the Pro­fes­sion­al Stan­dards Bu­reau (PSB) had con­duct­ed these high-pro­file and se­ri­ous crim­i­nal mat­ters.

"This fol­lows sev­er­al re­fer­rals for dis­ci­pline and re­peat­ed pieces of ad­vice by the PCA to the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (CoP) over the past 13 years,” the PCA state­ment not­ed.

“These in­ves­ti­ga­tions re­fer to mat­ters where po­lice com­plainants fail to at­tend court, fail to com­ply with the court’s di­rec­tives and fail to com­ply with their own stand­ing or­ders," it said.

The PCA said, as a re­sult, it has sub­mit­ted the mat­ters to its In­ves­tiga­tive and Le­gal units for im­me­di­ate ac­tion.