House of Assembly delays Police Act for further review

Citing past incidents where he was a “victim of police abuse,” Premier Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley announced Friday that the House of Assembly would delay its planned debate on the Police Act 2023, which he said he introduced in the HOA this month on behalf of Governor John Rankin.

“I want to make it clear that there is no intention by any member of the House of Assembly to pass this bill in its current form,” he said on Friday. “We recognise a number of areas that are clearly problematic.”

Dr. Wheatley introduced the bill on Feb. 2 after the HOA voted to add it to the agenda for the day, and it initially was scheduled for debate on Friday. However, it drew criticism from residents who suggested that certain provisions — including sections broadening police officers’ power to make arrests without warrants and to collect physical evidence from detainees — could unduly threaten civil liberties.

On Friday, Dr. Wheatley said legislators would postpone the debate to allow for more discussions and further review.

Previous delays

The delay is not the first for the bill, which would replace an act that was originally passed in 1986 and was most recently updated in 2013, according to the premier.

“In 2015 the National Security Council considered and approved a new Police Act, and this bill was first introduced in the House of Assembly in 2018,” he said. “As security is a matter that falls under the remit of the governor, this bill would have been prepared through the collaboration of the Deputy Governor’s Office, the police [and] the attorney general with input from the director of public prosecutions. The premier brings the bill to the House of Assembly on behalf of the governor.”

The 2018 version of the bill, however, was not passed by the third HOA at the time, and it was introduced again under the current HOA shortly after the 2019 election.

“It was introduced a number of times, but not passed,” the premier said. “It has been in the public sphere literally for years.”

Consultations

During that time, several consultations were held, and members of the public provided input on the bill. As part of that effort, the premier noted that he took part in public meetings across Tortola and the sister islands.

“As a result of the feedback we received last year, we proposed a number of amendments to the bill,” he said. “In addition to the proposed amendments based on public consultation, a number of additional amendments were made to the bill that the public did not request and were not privy to. These changes are reflected in the bill that was introduced to the House of Assembly a week ago.”

In his Friday statement, Dr. Wheatley acknowledged that a new law is needed, noting that existing legislation is “not fully reflective of modern policing practices, contemporary human resources practices and current technological advances in the prevention and detection of crime, such as DNA testing and electronic data analysis.”

However, he said that any changes to the territory’s legislative framework must not unduly infringe on civil liberties.

“We must enact the changes necessary to equip the force to protect and serve, and in committee stage we must remove the areas that we all are gravely concerned about,” he said. “We will not debate the bill today. We will allow more time to consult, discuss and prepare the necessary amendments to be considered by the public and members.”

Personal experiences

The premier also shared three occasions when he claimed he had been a victim of police abuse. One occurred in the Virgin Islands, another in the United States and a third in the United Kingdom.

“In 1996 I was walking down the street one late night in Road Town,” he said. “A jeep pulled next to me and a man jumped out and pointed a gun at my head and told me to get down on the ground. He cuffed me, put me in the back of the jeep, and took me to the police station for questioning. After realising that I was not who they thought, I was released.”

Similar experiences, he said, occurred after a traffic ticket in Atlanta in 1999 and while he was studying in the UK in 2004.

“I am perhaps the only Virgin Islander in history who has led a march in London protesting a death in police custody,” he said, adding, “I am the last person who would give the police powers that can be abused.”