INDECOM Has No Power To Arrest Cops: Appeals Court Rules

The court of appeals has just made an earth-shat­ter­ing rul­ing today.
In a 2 – 1 deci­sion, the court ruled that INDECOM has no pow­er of arrest and as such has no pow­er to arrest and charge any mem­ber of the JCF.
We will say more after we have seen the decision.

UPDATE TO THIS STORY>
This pub­li­ca­tion wish­es to con­grat­u­late DSP Dyer who stood up to a bul­ly and was not swayed in the face of what this pub­li­ca­tion and this writer has long main­tained was the action of a rogue com­mis­sion and a nar­cis­sis­tic media hog­ging com­mis­sion­er whose sole goal it seems is to solid­i­fy pow­er in order to use it against the nation’s secu­ri­ty forces.

In 2014 Dyer was con­vict­ed for inter­fer­ing with an INDECOM probe and fined $800,000.Dyer chal­lenged the rul­ing and took the mat­ter to the high court.
We also wish to con­grat­u­late the Appeals court which inter­pret­ed the law as it is con­fig­ured and made the appro­pri­ate ruling.
The Dyer case emerged from an inci­dent in which INDECOM went to the Central Village Police Station to con­fis­cate the weapons involved in a shoot­ing case involv­ing the police.

https://​www​.inde​com​.gov​.jm/​w​p​-​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​2​0​1​6​/​1​1​/​I​N​D​E​C​O​M​-​A​c​t​.​pdf

DSP Dyer refused to hand over the weapons and was sub­se­quent­ly sub­poe­naed to appear in the Half Way Tree Resident Magistrate Court where he was fined the out­ra­geous sum.
Fortunately, DSP Dyer was not cowed by that rul­ing and decid­ed that the courts are there for all Jamaicans, not just a few. This rul­ing by the high court quash­es Dyer’s con­vic­tion and sends an earth-shat­ter­ing mes­sage to INDECOM that tyran­ny will not suffice.

The agency has a respon­si­bil­i­ty to impar­tial­ly inves­ti­gate and turn over it’s find­ings to the duly con­sti­tut­ed office of the Director of Public Prosecution.
We can­not have a rogue agency of Government going off on its own sow­ing dis­cord in the law enforce­ment com­mu­ni­ty as hun­dreds of Jamaicans are mur­dered each month.

This rul­ing is not a vic­to­ry for rogue cops, it is bal­anced rul­ing for good cops who want to do their jobs. Advocacy works.
My regards to my young intel­lec­tu­al friend who just told me this rul­ing paves the way for the new­ly appoint­ed Commissioner of Police Major General Anthony Anderson to be successful.
An awe­some point of view in light of the mur­der rate.

I once again call on this Government to repeal this oner­ous crime enhance­ment law now.