One of the pervading questions at the face-to-face consultation on the draft Police Bill 2020 was: “Who will police the police?”
This question was raised by several participants in Levuka yesterday.
Lovoni villager Usaia Moli said the proposed Bill would “give more power to police officers”.
“There’s already a lot of abuse in terms of police power in communities against the community as well,” he claimed.
“We are giving them a lot of power to do that as well.”
Mr Moli made the comment in relation to a section of the Bill that outlined police powers regarding seizing electronic devices.
The draft Bill said police recognised the increased use of technology and its influence on society.
The proposed legislation said empowering the police to “access, seize, extract and store any information from any electronic or storage device would greatly assist in carrying out investigations of cybercrimes and any other related crime”.
Mr Moli said it was imperative for police officers to be educated on the draft Bill first before taking it to Parliament.
“If they are given this power, who will be there to govern them to look at how they carry out these changes.”
Manager National Security and Policing Joji Washington said they would look into the submission that was raised in terms of having an independent body to police the police.
“I think you raised a valid point,” he said.
“For the purpose of this amending the Police Act, we are here to hear submissions on how we can carry out this.
“There’s an internal affairs (department) within the Fiji Police Force and if you wish to make a complaint, you can raise it with this section and so they will investigate if he or she has misused those powers under the current Police Act.
“There are control measures in place if the police use unreasonable powers.
“In this Bill, if they misuse their powers, they can be investigated and charged just like any other person, so this power is just to empower them to seize electronic gadgets to effectively carry out their investigations.
“But not all people, only if you’re suspected of carrying out illegal activities or if you are a person of national interest, then the police will seize your gadgets.”
