Police are being given the power to detain criminal suspects for five days without being charged. This was one of the contentious provisions of the Bail (Amendment) Bill 2010, which was presented by Attorney General Anand Ramlogan for debate in the House of Representatives yesterday. "The police will now have the power to detain for five days if they reasonably suspect that you are committing a crime," Ramlogan said.
He listed some of the offences under which a suspected criminal can be detained for five days without being charged: possession of imitation firearms in the pursuance of any criminal offence; larceny of a motor vehicle; perverting or defeating the course of public justice; receiving stolen goods; manslaughter; shooting or wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm; unlawful wounding; robbery with aggravation, robbery with violence; possession and use of firearm or ammunition with intent to endanger life; possession of firearm or ammunition without license, certificate or permit; trafficking dangerous drugs; sexual intercourse with a male and/or female under 16; sexual assault with an adopted minor and mentally-subnormal person; and incest, kidnapping, rape.
Ramlogan told legislators that rape was on the rise in T&T. "And if we cannot protect our women from the bandits and rapists, then something must be wrong with this country," he added.He said those who engage in negotiating a ransom for a kidnapped person could be arrested."If they find you trying to negotiate a ransom, the police will now be able to detain you for up to five days," the AG said. "We feel that this law will create the kind of holding bay to allow the police to do they job we want them to do." He said the existing 48-hour detention without charge was inadequate for the police to carry out the necessary investigation in order to proffer a charge against a suspect.
He said the legislation sought to mandate the court against granting bail for the specified offences. Ramlogan said the bill provided for a police officer who detained a suspect to inform a superintendent or higher rank. He added that the high-ranking official must then review the grounds for detention within 24 hours on whether the suspect should be released or detained. Ramlogan also said the police could face disciplinary action for abuse under the proposed legislation, which altered the Constitution and required a special three-fifths majority vote to become law. He said senior police officers must understand "the confidence and the awesome responsibility that we enlist with them in this law." The AG said the police must not "approve and endorse a misuse of this law, but to take an independent, genuine and fair, critical analysis and look at the person's detention to ensure that it was proper, lawful and necessary."
He then advised senior police officers that "they must act rationally and reasonably, responsibly and fairly." He said: "Far too often in this country, some of the senior police officers don't exercise that independence of judgment, discretion and authority...and this law, while giving them the power to deprive a citizen of his liberty for five days without preferring a criminal charge, it is an awesome responsibility." He said police officers should "exercise it responsibly and fairly." Ramlogan then advised: "If senior police officers abdicate their statutory duty and responsibility to act as an important barrier between the arresting and detaining officer and the citizen...if the superintendent don't understand or abdicates his responsibility, I want to make it clear that that may be grounds for disciplinary action." He said police officers "are to fight crime, but we want to ensure that we protect the rights of the innocent citizens."