ONE OF the most tragic aspects of the circumstances surrounding the death of PC Clarence Gilkes, 44, is that there is little sign any of the parties involved will get justice.

The officer’s loved ones cannot rest easy in the certainty that justice will soon take its course. Those suspected of being liable for his death will almost certainly not soon have a clear path to proving their innocence or responding to charges.

Instead, a web of confusion attends last Friday’s incident at Upper Rich Plain Road, Diego Martin.

It is all the State’s making.

Conflicting reports in relation to police activities within so-called “hotspot” communities are nothing new. In this case, it is suggested the police believe that Mr Gilkes was killed by a gunman or gunmen. Residents, however, reportedly say he was killed accidentally by one of his own.

We should not have to speculate. Bodycam footage, so long begged for, should have been able to tell us the truth and CCTV network coverage should already have illuminated the facts.

Instead, the State has been half-hearted in its rollout of the former and has allowed itself to get bogged down in contractual disputes and maintenance delays in relation to the latter.

At one stage in this ongoing saga, an individual identified as a suspect at that point expressed a desire to turn himself in, but feared for his life and sought assurances that he would not be harmed.

In another time and place, the idea of a suspect so brazenly refusing to turn himself in might have triggered outright condemnation.

But the hard reality – known to all in this country and even by our international allies, who have noted credible reports of police abuse over the years – is that there is a very real risk of harm at the hands of officers, who, too often, appear to act with impunity. There is a string of judicial findings that confirm abuse of power at police stations.

Even the findings of a pathology review on Tuesday are subject to murkiness. Time and time again official state autopsies are contradicted by the findings of privately-hired pathologists – sowing even more seeds of distrust. This is not helped by the well-known fact that our forensic facilities are overburdened.

The suggestion that the death may have been accidental, meanwhile, raises uncomfortable echoes.

No one has yet explained how a pregnant mother from Beetham Gardens, Ornella Greaves, came to be killed while filming a protest against police two years ago. Video footage led many to speculate that it was the reckless discharge of a gun in a “warning shot” that was responsible.

But all we have, thanks to our lax police regulation, is speculation.

Will a similar fate now befall PC Gilkes?