The Home Affairs Minister has accused St Helier Deputy Mike Higgins of undermining the States police after he raised concerns about the force’s conduct and investigations in the Assembly on recent occasions.
Deputy Higgins, who has been a States Member for more than ten years has now revealed he considered not standing for election in 2018 but changed his mind to make sure he was in the Assembly while an investigation by Norfolk Constabulary into the Planning Department was ongoing.
Deputy Higgins has asked questions for ‘seven years’ about the case, which was first investigated by the States police in 2010. They found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
Last year it was revealed that officers from the UK had begun an inquiry into alleged corruption in the Island’s Planning Department dating back several years.
Deputy Higgins is now calling for an overhaul of the way serious investigations into police conduct are handled. Currently, serious complaints can be made to the Jersey Police Complaints Authority. Investigations are then carried out by the States police’s professional standards department – overseen by the JPCA which has no investigatory powers of its own.
The JPCA has the ability to request an external force to investigate on its behalf if it deems fit.
He said: ‘We have the JPCA but it’s not independent. Theoretically it is
but it’s the police investigating itself. It needs to be abolished and we need something truly independent.’
In the UK, the Independent Office for Police Conduct investigates the most serious complaints against officers and forces. UK forces also have their own internal investigation teams. Guernsey and the Isle of Man have similar systems to Jersey.
Recently the Deputy has raised questions about a police investigation into a ‘prominent Islander’ accused of sexual misconduct. No charges were made in that case after, detectives say, a file was passed to the Law Officers’ Department and a decision not to prosecute was made.
In the last States sitting Deputy Higgins raised concerns about an ‘inebriated’ woman who was allegedly strip-searched when two male police officers were present.
Home Affairs Minister Len Norman said he was not a aware of a ‘strip-search policy’ but said it would have to be sanctioned by a sergeant or higher-ranked officer. He added that he was not aware of the particular alleged incident and told Deputy Higgins to ‘not just speculate and listen to rumours’.
Deputy Higgins added: ‘People call me a conspiracy theorist but I am just doing my job. Sometimes people tell me things and it’s just not credible. Other times there is sufficient evidence that it needs to be raised.’
In June, after Deputy Higgins questioned the investigation into a ‘prominent Islander’, Mr Norman said in the Chamber: ‘We all know that Deputy Higgins, when it comes to being a conspiracy theorist, is right up there at the very top.’
Deputy Higgins has an open invitation to meet the deputy police chief James Wileman, which he intends to take up.
Mr Norman said the system in Jersey was consistent with other areas in the British Isles.
He added that his department were working on updating legislation concerning complaints against the police by 2020 to ‘ensure that our procedures are in line with current best practise in British policing’. Details of the updates have not been disclosed.
