Emergency powers may give police greater authority, but Deputy Commissioner Bart Jones says officers will still have rules to follow. He explained today that the Police Department and the Attorney General’s Ministry have established strict protocols to prevent arbitrary detentions. Jones says law-abiding residents can continue their daily routines as usual.
Bart Jones
Bart Jones, Deputy Commissioner of Police
“We have discussed with the Attorney General’s Ministry and we have formulated strict protocols that are being followed in this SOE, that includes ensuring that proper documentation, ensuring that there is additional oversight additional oversight, because there always was, and ensuring more specifically that these persons, when they are in fact detained beyond the normal forty-eight hours that they are connected to specific investigations. So, we have learned from some of what the court has said in respect to the state of emergency. While it is a very restrictive and some may say draconian measures, for the police it is not a car Blanche for the violation of rights, we still have to operate within the confines of the law. So there will be no outside of what the provisions allows us to do. In terms of the general public, your business as usual, you can go about your respective business, although those who live in the restrictive areas, as I said, in terms of the detention it will be on those where we have reasonable suspicion that they are involved in the murders, the shootings, the violence, the robberies and so on. reasonable suspicion will be based on the circumstances of each case. So it will be whether there is enough information, or maybe not sufficient to prefer a charge, but there is information for a person to be detained, interviewed and the rest.”
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