IT APPEARS that the Government has accepted the recommendation of Michael Hylton, Q.C., the Solicitor-General, to be specific with the police powers it wants granted to members of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF).
Derrick Smith, Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) spokesman on national security, and a member of the parliamentary committee examining the Bill, said he received the proposed amendments yesterday. Mr. Hylton had made his recommendation on December 16 last year.
"I only got mine (the amendments) today (Thursday) and as a parliamentary group we haven't discussed it yet," Mr. Smith told The Gleaner yesterday. The committee examining the document is scheduled to sit again next Thursday.
Asked if the JLP would now support the move to grant soldiers police powers in the fight against crime, Smith said: "I'm not able to speak on the party's position at this time". He disclosed, however, that in terms of the amendments, the specific role of soldiers in matters such as cordon and search, patrol and apprehension, was now clearly defined.
The Solicitor-General had, in December, recommended that the Government amend the Bill seeking to grant police powers to soldiers.
He urged an amendment to the Defence Act that would refer only to those powers which were considered necessary and appropriate for the exercise of the relevant duties. Government had wanted an amendment which states: "and have all such powers as may lawfully be exercised".
In his recommendation dated December 16, 2002, Mr. Hylton told the committee examining the Bill to: "Consider defining specifically the powers which a member of the Jamaica Defence Force should be able to exercise in these circumstances". This, he said "should be done out of an abundance of caution".
The Solicitor-General made his recommendation after being asked for a legal opinion on the matter by the parliamentary committee set up to examine the proposed amendment to the Act.
The matter was sent to a special select committee after the parliamentary Opposition, on December 10, forced a suspension to the debate to amend the Act in the House.
The JLP charged then that the legislation was flawed in that it was "not properly thought out". The party also argued that soldiers were not trained to operate like the police and would therefore abuse their powers.
