The independent watchdog of the Hong Kong police does not have the power to propose its own reforms, its chairperson has said in response to a court ruling that the current mechanism of monitoring the police fails to protect human rights.

The comments came as the Independent Police Complaints Council disclosed having received close to 2,000 complaints about the police force that were related to last year’s anti-government protest movement.

Under the regulations, however, the IPCC had no right to make any suggestions to revamp its structure to better monitor the police, council chair Anthony Neoh said at a year-end press conference on Tuesday, citing their legal adviser.

In the ruling, handed down last month, the High Court said that the IPCC, in deploying checks on the police, did not meet requirements stated in the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance, which aimed to protect human rights. The IPCC, therefore, could not effectively conduct investigations into police misconduct, the court found.

That verdict did not overturn the mechanism nor affected the IPCC’s work, Neoh said.

As an advisory body, the IPCC does not have statutory powers to investigate police misconduct, nor the legal power to summon witnesses. The Complaints Against Police Office, which is under the police force, has the authority to decide whether to accept the council’s advice. The IPCC has also been criticized for aligning itself with pro-establishment figures.

The police watchdog has been castigated for failing to keep the force in check during the protests, in which officers were seen tear-gassing and beating largely peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators and firing rubber bullets at them. Fury at police actions intensified as the movement escalated last year, with allegations of police brutality fueling tensions between protesters and the force.

As of Dec. 4, the IPCC had received 1,946 complaints related to last year’s protests, Neoh said. Of these cases, 1,678 were submitted between mid-June last year and early March this year.

The council recorded 1,055 complaints from January to November, a decrease of about 32% compared with the same period last year. The most frequently received complaint was about negligence of duty, which accounted for about 47%, or 491 complaints.

It was followed by 377 complaints regarding improper behavior, poor attitude and the use of foul language, and another 129 complaints involving battering, Neoh added.

Click here for Chinese version

---------------------------------

Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE

To download the latest version,

iOS: bit.ly/AD_iOS

Android: bit.ly/AD_android

Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play