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Police told to shut down $15-m video identification system
BY KARYL WALKER Crime/Court Desk co-ordinator walkerk@jamaicaobserver.com
Thursday, September 17, 2009
GOVERNMENT lawyers have instructed the police to shut down its state-of-the-art video identification parade system, citing legal implications.
However, Observer sources said yesterday that members of the police high command were unhappy with the decision, especially since it came almost nine months after being given the blessing of senior government lawyers. The police, said the sources, believed the decision to shut down the system was counter-productive.
Computerised ID system stored more than 20,000 images
Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne was not available for comment on the matter last night, and it was not clear what the legal concerns of the Government were regarding the ID system.
The ID system, which was commissioned in January this year, was funded to the tune of $15 million by the United States and United Kingdom governments.
"Before we implemented the system, we got legal advice from the Attorney General's Office that it was legal; now we are hearing that it is illegal. It is a retrograde step," said a police source ,who did not want to be named.
For years, identification parades took an inordinately long time to complete because of the archaic method which was available to local investigators. However, the new system, which was banned this week, allowed victims to identify suspects within a safe environment.
The police will now have to revert to the old system of compiling a line-up with persons of similar features, a far cry from the computerised version which stored more than 20,000 images on a database which is accessible with the click of a computer mouse.
"It is the Jamaican people and the already overburdened justice system who are going to suffer," the Observer source said.
Officers who were trained to use the modern identification parade system were yesterday informed by the police high command that they would be deployed to other sections of the Constabulary as their services were not needed to carry out identification parades at this time.
The electronic identification parade system was installed at police stations in Kingston and was to be set up at stations in St Catherine, Manchester, St James and St Ann.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...ID_PARADES.asp
BY KARYL WALKER Crime/Court Desk co-ordinator walkerk@jamaicaobserver.com
Thursday, September 17, 2009
GOVERNMENT lawyers have instructed the police to shut down its state-of-the-art video identification parade system, citing legal implications.
However, Observer sources said yesterday that members of the police high command were unhappy with the decision, especially since it came almost nine months after being given the blessing of senior government lawyers. The police, said the sources, believed the decision to shut down the system was counter-productive.
Computerised ID system stored more than 20,000 imagesAttorney General Dorothy Lightbourne was not available for comment on the matter last night, and it was not clear what the legal concerns of the Government were regarding the ID system.
The ID system, which was commissioned in January this year, was funded to the tune of $15 million by the United States and United Kingdom governments.
"Before we implemented the system, we got legal advice from the Attorney General's Office that it was legal; now we are hearing that it is illegal. It is a retrograde step," said a police source ,who did not want to be named.
For years, identification parades took an inordinately long time to complete because of the archaic method which was available to local investigators. However, the new system, which was banned this week, allowed victims to identify suspects within a safe environment.
The police will now have to revert to the old system of compiling a line-up with persons of similar features, a far cry from the computerised version which stored more than 20,000 images on a database which is accessible with the click of a computer mouse.
"It is the Jamaican people and the already overburdened justice system who are going to suffer," the Observer source said.
Officers who were trained to use the modern identification parade system were yesterday informed by the police high command that they would be deployed to other sections of the Constabulary as their services were not needed to carry out identification parades at this time.
The electronic identification parade system was installed at police stations in Kingston and was to be set up at stations in St Catherine, Manchester, St James and St Ann.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...ID_PARADES.asp
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