Staggering Under the Burden: ICD Policies on the Receipt of Complaints and on Investigations and Their Negative Impact on the ICD, on Public Confidence, and on Police Discipline

This paper is not intended to discuss the legal mandate of the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) but to rather discuss how it has interpreted this mandate. In recent years the ICD has adopted an approach in terms of which it aims to investigate all cases which it receives. As will be explained in this paper, the approach is not legally necessary, it is not justified in terms of practical or theoretical considerations (even if it was justified at an earlier point in the ICD's history), and it is self-defeating, contributing to inadequate investigations of complaints against the police.