THE EDITOR, Sir:
THE POLICE, backed by soldiers, who pulled me to the side of the road on Sunday November 18, 2001, were convinced they had the automatic right to search my vehicle. The Suppression of Crime Act may have been repealed seven years ago, but the culture of disregard for people's rights continues.
Last Sunday I produced my driver's licence and the car documents as requested. All were in order. Then a constable asked me to open the trunk of my car because the police were conducting routine searches for guns and drugs. His senior officer tried to convince me that the law gave him the right to search any vehicle, and I spent almost half an hour trying to correct his misperception. I suggested the time of the police could be better spent in investigation so their actions could be targeted and perhaps productive.
I was instructed to drive to the police station as the penalty for not 'co-operating' in the abrogation of my rights as a citizen. I insisted that I would submit to the search ONLY if the police had reasonable cause to suspect me of wrong-doing, or if a state of emergency had been declared, suspending citizens' rights. Ultimately, the senior officer consulted a higher authority, and realised the arbitrary search could not be justified in law, even if every other motorist acceded to the police request.
Contrary to popular belief, police do NOT have the right to search at random. They need to show you a warrant except, as permitted under the Constabulary Force Act, in searches for drugs and guns. Any legal search, with or without warrant, must be ONLY on the basis of 'reasonable suspicion' In law, this means that the police must have some objective basis for searching. Arbitrary search is absolutely prohibited.
Incrementally yielding rights can be compared with the experience of the frog that is placed in a pot with cool water and adjusts to higher and higher temperatures till it is eventually boiled. The same frog would leap out if it were thrown into a pot with the water boiling.
Citizens need to be most vigilant about creeping erosions of their civil liberties, if they value democracy.
I am etc.,
YVONNE McCALLA SOBERS
asante@colis.com
11 Widcombe Drive,
Kingston 6
Via Go-Jamaica
