The appeal brought by four police groups against the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) is to be heard next year.

The four groups – The Jamaica Police Federation, the Police Officers’ Association, the Special Constabulary Force Association and the United District Constables’ Association – are appeal­ing a rul­ing of the Constitutional Court affirm­ing the pow­er of INDECOM to arrest mem­bers of the force. The appeal was set for hear­ing in February, but could not pro­ceed because one of the lawyers appear­ing in the case was unavail­able. It is now set for hear­ing on May 30, 2016.

In July 2013, the Constitutional Court ruled that under com­mon law as well as the INDECOM Act, the com­mis­sion had the pow­er to arrest mem­bers of the secu­ri­ty forces. It also ruled that the pow­ers of the INDECOM Commissioner and his inves­ti­ga­tors in no way dilut­ed the author­i­ty of the Director of Public Prosecutions to con­tin­ue, takeover or dis­con­tin­ue any pros­e­cu­tion. But the four police groups are argu­ing that the rul­ing has seri­ous oper­a­tional and con­sti­tu­tion­al impli­ca­tions and must be chal­lenged at the high­est lev­el. The INDECOM Commissioner and the Attorney General are the respon­dents. Cops’ Appeal Against INDECOM’s Power To Arrest Set For May