Long-awaited review of anti-gang law to begin next month

Livern Barrett, Senior Gleaner Writer

The long-awaited review of the so-called anti-gang law is set to begin next month.

The joint select committee of Parliament, which was established to conduct the review, held its first meeting at Gordon House in Kingston today and agreed to start hearing submissions on Tuesday, November 13.

National Security Minister and chairman of the committee Dr Horace Chang said the plan is for his ministry to outline all the changes that have been proposed for The Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal Organisations) Act, commonly referred to as the anti-gang legislation.

“Then the DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions] comes in to see if those proposals fit in with what they want,” Chang said. 

“And then we proceed to get from the public bodies what they see as wrong or needs to be done,” he added.

The Jamaica Constabulary Force, the Jamaica Defence Force, and the DPP’s office are the first entities asked to make submissions.

Other stakeholder groups will be invited to make submissions to the committee.

The anti-gang legislation was enacted four years ago to help crush criminal gangs, which, according to the police, are responsible for more than 60 per cent of all murders in Jamaica.

In May, DPP Paula Llewellyn raised concerns that, unlike the Dangerous Drug Act or the Firearms Act, there is no “expressed provision” in the anti-gang legislation that allows law enforcement authorities to obtain a warrant to enter and search premises.

According to Llewellyn, this makes it more difficult for investigators to go after accountants and other "silent partners" who are helping gangsters finance their criminal lifestyle.

Such an arrangement, she argued, raised questions about what would happen in cases where investigators have credible information that gang leaders or gang members have a separate location in an upscale community from where they direct their criminal activities.

 "What would empower them [investigators] to go in there, search, and seize?" she questioned.

"Suppose one of their silent partners is an accountant - he does the financials for the gang and he has a lovely office somewhere in New Kingston - how would the police go in there and get it?" she continued.

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