Under new initiative, police will have broad powers of search and arrest – without a warrant!

There have been multiple reports that the Ministry of National Security had begun, beginning Friday, November 2, 2012, a new and controversial initiative under which portions of Southside Belize City would be declared “crime ridden,” giving police broad search and arrest powers that enable them to act without a warrant in detaining citizens.

However, Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry, Ret’d Col. George Lovell, has indicated to the media that if indeed police have been undertaking searches without warrants, they have been doing so under laws that give them special powers in the event officers want to search for drugs and guns—not the special declaration announced last Thursday.

Speaking with Amandala on Monday, Lovell said that the Crimes Control Council (CCC) must give its consent if the government is to move forward with plans to declare specific areas of the city as “crime ridden.”

This would entail the formulation of a statutory instrument which would have to be published in the Government Gazette. Amandala has confirmed that the ordinary Gazette due to be released on Wednesday does not include the declaration, and if the government intends to have it published this week, it may have to request the publication of an extraordinary Gazette to give immediate effect to the declaration.

There is one major problem, though. That Council, headed by Senior Counsel Michael Young, has been inactive since the establishment of Restore Belize, an anti-crime program housed under the Office of the Prime Minister. Lovell said that Young would have to consult members of the Council before giving such consent. He said that government has been trying to get the CCC’s consent since last week.

Amandala was unable to reach Young when we tried repeatedly to contact him today via his office and private numbers, but we did manage to speak with Lisa Shoman, SC, the last appointed rep of the Opposition People’s United Party to the Council.

Shoman told us that the Council has been moribund for nearly three years. It had last tried to convene a meeting in 2010—to no avail. Shoman also said that she has never been consulted on the government’s proposal to set up the “crime ridden” areas. If she had been contacted, said Shoman, she would have categorically rejected the proposal.

It’s like trying radial mastectomy before giving a breast cancer patient chemo- or radio-therapy, Shoman said. The declaration of “crime ridden” areas is really a “repressive” move by the government to bring back “preventative detention on steroids,” after the public rejected preventative detention proposals contained in the 6th and 8th amendments to the Belize Constitution, she went on to comment.

The special declaration of “crime ridden” areas would have to be done under the Crimes Control Act, Chapter 102 of the Laws of Belize, Part IV: Special Provisions for Crime-ridden Areas. More specifically, Lovell pointed us to sections 12 through 16, which specify that each crime-ridden area can span no more than one square mile.

We asked the CEO how many of these areas there will be, and he estimated that there would be about 4—all on the City’s Southside, but he told us that he could not disclose details just yet.

The law empowers the government to keep the declaration in effect for up to 30 days, and if a longer period is required, permission has to be granted via resolution by the House of Representatives. Lovell told the media today, however, that Government could sustain the declaration for, say, 20 days—less than the maximum—and then start the process again, suggesting that the need to go to Parliament could be circumvented.

The Crimes Control Act outlines the special powers that would be granted to the security forces, such as “search of any premises, place, vehicle, person or thing upon reasonable suspicion of being thereon or therein any unlawful drug or any unlicensed or prohibited firearm or ammunition, or any unlawfully obtained article or thing, or any person wanted in connection with a criminal investigation…”

It gives them power to “…seize, take away and detain any vehicle or article which he reasonably suspects is intended to be used, or has been used, for or in connection with the commission of any offence or is or has been unlawfully obtained or possessed…”

Furthermore, it gives the security forces power to “…arrest any person upon reasonable suspicion of his having committed or of being about to commit an offence; and temporarily establish a cordon around the special area or any part thereof for a period not exceeding three hours in any period of twenty-four hours and restrict the freedom of movement of persons and vehicles into or out of any area so cordoned.”

Interestingly, our newspaper has received reports that an operation appearing to fit such a description may have been carried out in the Lake Independence area of Belize City, in an area said to be the home of the PIV gang.

One working civilian with no gang affiliation told us, though, that police, in a pre-dawn operation Friday, also visited his home when he was not there. The Lake I resident also reported that a police checkpoint was set up in his neighborhood until around the rush-hour. We also received reports of police detentions in Lake I.

We stress, however, that according to CEO Lovell, the operations reported are not being conducted under the “crime-ridden” declaration – since there isn’t yet such a declaration in the legal sense.

Last Thursday, National Security Minister John Saldivar announced to the business community that the declaration by the Commissioner of Police, one of several members of the Crimes Control Council, would be effected on Friday, November 2. ComPol David Henderson declined to comment on details when we called him, although he did confirm that operations would have commenced on Friday, November 2.

Saldivar had said that Henderson, “will be invoking today [Thursday] the declaration of several crime-infested areas of Belize City as ‘crime-ridden’ areas,” giving power to security forces “to search any or all houses in the area without the need for a warrant” and “allowing them to restrict movement in and out of” specific areas that will be cordoned off. He added that security forces have since Wednesday been deployed in “crime ridden” areas, and there was already a visible presence by security forces in those areas.

Saldivar omitted to say, however, that the legal prerequisites for these operations, requiring the consent of the Crimes Control Council and the publication in the Gazette, had not yet been carried out.

Lovell told us today, though, that although the draft orders are ready, they can only hold up if the Crimes Control Council approves.

We note that apart from the Opposition, the CCC has representation from the bench (the judiciary) and bar (legal experts), as well as government ministries, private sector organizations and the NGO community.