Police service in new measures to minimise acquittal of cases
The National Police Service (NPS) has come up with a raft of measures to minimise acquittal of cases in courts.
In a bid to avoid being sucked into the ongoing blame game between the Judiciary and the Director of Public Prosecutions, NPS yesterday directed the investigating officers to strictly adhere to the laid down regulations regarding prosecution of cases.
Investigating officers have been directed to bond all witnesses in time and ensure that all exhibits are in court during the hearing of cases.
Court files
The officers have also been directed to take the court files to the respective courts three days before the hearing dates.
Investigating officers have to be in court even if they are not going to testify in order to help the witnesses and refresh their memories before the court cases commence.
In case they are not available, a qualified fully briefed substitute should be available throughout the trial.
A daily template has also been introduced that will show all the cases adjourned and the reasons for such, and who is responsible.
The officers are expected to ensure that all case files without hearing dates are followed up and dates obtained from the court registries in good time.
There has been a blame game, especially over court acquittals, with other institutions blaming the Judiciary.
The Chief Justice David Maraga has however told off critics saying the courts act independently and abide by the rule of law, adding that their decisions were only arrived at based on the facts presented by the prosecution.
To ensure accountability and proper follow up of cases, detectives have been directed to enter all cases in the Petty Crime Registers and the Serious Crime Registers and all exhibits must be clearly marked and labelled and entered in the Exhibit Registers.
“All exhibits which require expert opinion shall be escorted to the expert for analysis using the exhibit memo form (C18) and a follow up shall be made until the conclusion of the case,” the directive says.
