Police Department Accused of Cycling Uncharged Detainees

Defense attorneys are accusing police of turning a forty-eight-hour detention limit into a revolving door. They say officers are releasing people who have not been charged, only to detain them again for another forty-eight hours. Attorney Orson Elrington describes the practice as preventative detention without official authorization or proper safeguards. Now, the association wants the Commissioner of Police and senior government officials to intervene before more citizens are caught in what it calls an unlawful cycle.

 

Orson Elrington, Attorney-at-Law

“But what has happened over the last few weeks, and which has raised the alarm for the membership, is that the police have implemented this process that they called cycling. This is where persons are detained for forty-eight hours. They’re not really questioned, they’re just, just as a matter of process they ask them a few questions, not really intending to ask them any real questions, not really having them under investigation for any real crime, and then they release them and almost immediately re-detain them and putting them for a further forty-eight hours. And some have said they release them again and then detain them for a further forty-eight hours. And so what we have seen it and deem it to be is effectively a Preventative detention or action by the police department of them essentially implementing their own state of emergency without seeking to go through the proper process of the law to declare the state of emergency. And as we have seen, the courts have struck down even where they have declared states of emergency that they have not provided the relevant information, the relevant things for there to actually be a state of emergency declared. So we’re making it absolutely clear, and we’re putting them on notice that these actions are happening, and we’re asking for their intervention to instruct their police officers to ensure that they comply with the constitution and, and the constitutional rights of citizens and ensure that they, that their rights are protected.”

 

Elrington said the alleged abuse of repeated detention and release has become so widespread in recent weeks that some affected individuals are now considering legal action, arguing that their constitutional rights have been violated.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

Watch the full newscast here: