Experience and Death Management
3.33 The Commission was informed that the officers who are responsible for lock-up
management and safety are Officer in-charge of Police District(alsoknown as
Chief of Lock-up Guard), Officer in-charge of Station, Lock-up Administrator and
sentry personnel.
3.34 During the interviews, 16 Officers in-charge of Station stated that they had the
experience in handling death cases while 27 others did not have such
experience. Out of 125 sentry personnel (including lock-up administrators) who
were interviewed, only 18 had faced the situation where detainees died in lockup whereas 107 of them had no experience in such incidence. The Commission
did not interview the Officer in-charge of Police District during the research.
(Table 8)
Table 8
Experience in handling/facing deaths in Police Custody
Officer/Personnel
Yes
No
Total
Officer in-charge of Station
16
27
43
Sentry Personnel
18
107
125
Note: 3 Officers in-charge of Station and 4 Sentry Personnel did not answer the questions
3.35 Most Officers in-charge who were interviewed mentioned that they knew the
Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in the event of deaths in detention
occurred but not all of them gave similar responses. Among the actions taken
based on the SOP are:
a. Informing Officer in-charge of Police District, Chief of District Crime
Investigation and investigation officer;
b. lodging police report;
c. informing coroner and doctor to be present in lock-up;
45