Managing Corruption Risks in the Police Force's General Investigations Department

❖ Excerpted from a study by the Coalition for Integrity and Accountability (AMAN), February 2023: "The Coalition for Integrity and Accountability (AMAN), 2023 Risk Management of Corruption in the Police Force including Gender-Based Corruption (General Investigations Department and Traffic Department as models) Ramallah – Palestine"❖

●      Identifying, assessing and controlling corruption risks in the Police Force — General Investigations

●      In this publication we review what the (study) reported about one of the pivotal departments in the Police Force, namely the (General Investigations Department).

●      Below we list some of the operational pathways being followed regarding investigation and inquiry within the General Investigations:

●      A complaint by the victim, notification by public officials, covert operations and recruitment of sources by the General Investigations, handling of seized items at the criminal investigations, expressing an opinion on a certificate of good conduct at the requester’s behest — this is a primary example of a decision that can carry ramifications and risks rife with corruption as follows:

-        A certificate of good conduct is requested from the Ministry of Interior, which directs the Department of Institutions Security in the Ministry of Interior to contact the relevant security agencies, including the Governorate Police Chief, who sends a copy to the Criminal Information Department, which obtains the necessary information from the various police departments, including the General Investigations Department.

●      The General Investigations play an important role in the Ministry of Interior’s granting or withholding of approval for the request, which is influenced by the recommendations submitted by subordinates...

-        The type of deviation in the administrative decision may be moderate, because the recommendation to grant or withhold the certificate is affected by the wide discretionary authority of the investigating officer, since the General Investigations lack precise criteria (reference conditions) to help the investigating officer write his recommendation fordenial or withholding; furthermore the information obtained by the investigating officer may not be subject to review and verification, so it is dealt with as highly reliable; and usually the citizen is neither confronted nor informed of the reason for withholding the certificate, which makes it difficult for the citizen to challenge its credibility or to present evidence refuting what the investigation knows about him. For example, there may be a personal grudge between the investigating officer and the citizen requesting the certificate, or the citizen may be a political opponent of government policy or a member of an opposition political party...

-        In sum, the operational practices adopted by General Investigations officers in carrying out assigned tasks constitute an administrative custom accustomed to by its performers, without being recorded in a unified procedures manual that can be referred to when needed.

-        The negative impact that may result from deviation in the administrative decision can be high; a certificate of good conduct is pivotal to a citizen’s access to a government position, to being allowed to compete for government contracts, scholarships, or licenses in certain fields.

●      It is prudent to expect that the course of administrative decisions may suffer a defect or deviation leading to results inconsistent with the public interest and not serving the purposes set by law. Among the administrative decisions related to handling risks of a crime occurring is the "decision to register notifications of a crime having occurred." Registration of notifications is pivotal; failure to register notifications and reluctance to do so is tantamount to aborting the criminal file. The reasons leading the investigating officer to divert the procedure are varied, for example personal reasons where he has a personal relationship with the potential suspect and attempts to protect him.

●      Failure to deal with notifications may lead to loss of forensic evidence, increased public feeling that communication with the police institution is futile, and greater chances that citizens will take justice into their own hands.

-        One can envisage deviation in decisions taken by the investigating officer at the General Investigations, such as the officer ignoring important information about the offender’s character; the investigating officer may conduct a search in a way that causes loss of evidence or items related to the crime, or may search a suspect’s home for reasons related to humiliating the latter and tarnishing his reputation before his neighbors and family; physical torture also occurs, although the presence of cameras in interrogation rooms inside the General Investigations reduces that.

-        As for the pathway of the decision to safeguard forensic evidence and transfer it to the forensic laboratory, or to the laboratory in the criminal file, it is corrupt when evidence is transferred by a General Investigations officer who was not at the crime scene, resulting in the evidence being altered or seized during transportation to the forensic laboratories.

●      The pathway of the decision to safeguard a suspect’s possessions, detained at a detention center affiliated with a police station, in the (evidence vault): for example, the police officer responsible for the evidence vault seizes those possessions or exchanges or tampers with them.

-        The vast majority of crimes occurring within Palestinian society affect both men and women equally, such as vehicle theft, insults, fraud, customs evasion, adultery, and indecent acts; however, official statistics show that some crimes target women in Palestinian society in general, such as rape, abduction, honor killings, abortion, extortion — for example cyber-extortion — battery, sexual assault, kidnapping and threats.

-        For example... a report of a crime against women may give rise to deviation in the administrative decision in which the officer ignores the information presented to him because of the influence of societal culture in parts of Palestinian society; perhaps the investigating officer’s reluctance to pursue those cases stems from convictions denying women’s rights in society.

●      Evaluating investigative procedures from a gender perspective

●      Deviation in the administrative decision can take the form of denial and apparent skepticism in the investigators’ eyes, in his tone of voice, and in the manner of questioning toward the female accused or witness who is overwhelmed by confusion, tension and fear. Instead of the officer seeking facts that expose the perpetrator or establish his connection to the crime, the investigator seeks contradictions and deficiencies in the woman’s testimony to portray her as (a liar) or a complainer, or as culpable for previous acts that supposedly made her deserve the bitterness of the crime she experienced.

●      ..The administrative decision may also deviate when the investigator exploits the weakness of the female victim to coerce her into providing (sexual services) in exchange for getting her out of trouble or for keeping her story secret; here the impact of the deviation is great because it relates to the woman’s honor and chastity (low probability).

-        In cases where the woman is accused of committing a crime, the decision taken by the General Investigations officer in charge of investigating her may follow paths deviating from the strong mandatory procedures. The investigating officer may force the accused woman, charged with theft, fraud or deception, to open her mobile phone and begin invading her privacy by viewing correspondence and personal photos that have no relation to the crime under investigation, thereby exposing the accused woman’s private life secrets or offending her modesty, or he may go further and demand sexual services from the woman or extort her financially. The impact of such deviation here is large (moderate).

-        The absence of female police officers working in the General Investigations and entrusted with investigative tasks increases the probability of the aforementioned administrative deviations.

-        The presence of cameras in interrogation rooms reduces the likelihood of deviation, but the absence of cameras in branch offices of the General Investigations distributed across the West Bank and Jerusalem, in addition to the fact that video cameras do not record audio, means that one cannot know what conversations occur between the investigating officer and female victims.....

-        One can also envisage deviation in the decision by the investigating officer recommending negatively regarding the woman requesting a certificate of good conduct; the reason for withholding may be that one of the woman’s relatives, a family member, or her husband belongs to an opposition party or causes unrest or incites against the government or its representatives.

-        Thus the (study) considers the impact resulting from deviation to be relatively high, as is the likelihood of that deviation occurring. The reason for that is the wide discretionary authority that the investigating officer assigned to inquiries can enjoy, not to mention the absence of a guiding manual to illuminate the conduct the investigating officer should follow before making a recommendation of approval or rejection.

·       To be continued