The Authority has overseen a Police investigation into a complaint made by a woman concerning her arrest for disorderly behaviour and detention.
Police contacted the complainant and asked her to pick up her two young nieces who had been arrested. When she arrived at the Police station she refused to provide Police with her full name or otherwise identify herself, and was generally uncooperative and noisy. She was asked to leave the station several times but refused. Police arrested her for disorderly behaviour and detained her overnight. During the course of the night, apparently by way of protest, the complainant defecated in her cell and smeared her excrement over the walls.
The focus of the woman’s complaint was about her treatment in custody. The Authority also looked at the lawfulness of her arrest.
Police concluded that the arrest and detention was lawful and that the complainant’s treatment in custody was reasonable.
The Authority concluded that the arrest and detention were unlawful, essentially because the complainant’s behaviour did not reach the relatively high threshold for disorderly behaviour. We concluded that the various complaints made by the woman as to her treatment while in custody were unfounded.
Police accept the complainant was not initially properly evaluated and should have been reassessed. They also acknowledge it was not appropriate for officers to have put conditions on allowing the complainant to shower.
In the course of our investigation we also identified other issues that were not the subject of the original complaint which we have raised with Police. These concern the lawfulness of Police dealings with the complainant’s nieces and inadequacies in Police record keeping.
IPCA: 23-20219