Macmillan

Minister of National Security, Colonel Trevor MacMillan, has said the Government is currently drafting legislation to make police collection of DNA material from suspects in crime investigations a formality.

MacMillan's comment was in response to five recommendations to collar crime set out by the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) in a release to the media last Thursday. The recommendations arose from an emergency meeting of the PSOJ last Tuesday.

"The Cabinet has looked at the whole question of the DNA law and I expect it to come on stream shortly," the security minister said Friday. "It's going to be a law similar to the Fingerprint Act, where if you commit a crime, then you will have to give DNA."

Increased power

The Fingerprint Act provides the police with increased powers to fingerprint and photograph suspects in specific criminal matters without a court order.

The PSOJ recommended that the Government amend the Fingerprint Act in order that fingerprints, photographs and DNA samples (mouth swabs) be taken from all persons arrested or charged with a criminal offence.

The PSOJ also recommended mandatory imprisonment on conviction for any gun-related crime, including illegal possession of firearm, for a minimum of 15 years.

That, according to MacMillan, could not work as the Court of Appeal and the UK-based Privy Council had already ruled against the concept of mandatory sen-tences, instead leaving it to the judges to decide.

MacMillan welcomed the implementation of a three-strikes law for all repeat dangerous offenders and the implementation of video evidence to record witness testimonies. He, however, did not commit to a timeline for enactment of the three-strikes law.

The use of video link has been mooted by the Government and Justice Minister Dorothy Lightbourne told a Gleaner-sponsored forum on justice reform recently that the bill had already been drafted and would be tabled soon.