Cops ordered to end practice of demanding cell phone passwords in random stops

It is unlawful for cops to demand a citizen’s cell phone password during a random stop, Jamaican authorities have admitted.

The declaration by Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang and Commissioner of Police Dr Kevin Blake comes amid reports of cops confiscating mobile phones during operations and demanding that citizens provide their passwords.

“It is wrong,” Chang said on Wednesday during a post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, citing the deadly lottery scam as a reason for the practice by the police.

The police commissioner was more forceful.

“It is not right. It is not legal. Let me just say that clear,” Blake told journalists during the press briefing at Jamaica House.

He said when the practice came to the attention of the Police High Command orders were given for it to stop.

Blake noted that there is a process for the police to obtain cellphone passwords and said this includes getting an order from the court.

“The process certainly is not coercing someone on that scene,” he said.

One man recounted, in a letter to the editor of The Gleaner, an incident in which he decided to video-record a group of police personnel he believed were conducting themselves in an unprofessional manner while on duty.

He claimed that one of the cops looked at his identification card before ordering him into the back of the police service vehicle saying he “resembled a suspect in a robbery”.

The man claimed he was taken to the police station where the police demanded the password to his cellular phone and deleted the videos he recorded of their actions.

- Livern Barrett

Follow The Gleaner on X and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.