When Tonga's new Police Commissioner Chris Kelley took on the job of police commander two and a half years ago he began cleaning up the force, calling on the public to be part of the process of restoring trust and confidence in their police.

"If the people have an issue with the police or a certain police behaviour they should come and report the matter," he said on taking up the job in September 2008, after Tonga Police had been without a commander since early 2007.

Since then there have been 243 complaints against police resulting in 26 officers being charged with offences, 11 being sued in the civll courts and more still under investigation. Police officers have lost their jobs and new recruits have been brought in under a modern training regime that asserts they are operating under the same process of law as the public.

Yesterday, at a press conference, dealing with a petition of grievances by 150 anonymous police officers who were resisting reforms, Commissioner Kelley commented on the ambitious police reform programme that he has led.

"The question is can the police put its own house in order? If they can then the public will continue confidence and if they cannot then how can the police expect to keep law and order in the community?

"The Tonga Police Development Programme is an ambitious undertaking and in the last two years has demonstrated what we can do with resources, equipment and technical assistance."

Disciplined

The Commissioner said one of the recent grievances was the elimination of a Police Tribunal and that officers alleged with inappropriate conduct were suspended outright.

"I believe these grievances to be promoted by persons who had been subjected to disciplinary action or who are aggrieved by failing to understand merit-based promotion decisions," he said.

"Since I took office there have been 243 complaints against police which have been and are currently being investigated.

"I do not feel good about this, but it is a fact, and I think it is very poor to allege that I knowingly operate a corrupt service. I know a number of officers are bitter that they have been called to account but the mandate given by government in 2008 was to implement reform and the important part of that is accountability.

"And that is the importance of having transparency and accountability because if we do not, we do have a police service," he said.

The police tribunal was an in-house process, that had been phased out.

"Quite frankly that in house process does not do anything about public confidence. Now when a police officer commits an offence his process is applied under the same law and penalties as any other member of the public.

"The tribunal side is an old way of doing things and it does not invite public confidence as it happens behind closed doors and people do not know what the results.

"Many of our staff may find that hard to deal with in public, but we should because we are a public service and important one because we exercise powers over them and we are required to have integrity and impartiality. If we do not do that we have no credibility.

Now police under investigation may be referred to a police board who can recommend action for dismissal and the Police Commissioner is not a member of it.

There is also an employment committee chaired by the Commissioner for routine matters.

Safeguards

Commenting on the introduction of the new Police Act last year, Kelly said, "The new act ensures police transparency and accountability to the people, by establishing guiding principles for how policing should be carried out.

"Most importantly, it provides rights, strengthens safeguards in the exercise of police powers, not only for suspected offenders but also for victims and witnesses and members of the public who have care and protection needs," he said.