Justice Minister Delroy Chuck - file photo
.png)
Delroy Chuck
The Andrew Holness-led administration appears willing to reconsider the decision to allow private security personnel to provide bodyguard services for parish court judges.
This follows a meeting on Wednesday involving National Security Minister Dr. Horace Chang, Justice Minister Delroy Chuck and Chief Justice Bryan Sykes.
Last week, the National Security Minister rejected the Chief Justice's call for a review of the new policy to deploy close protection officers to frontline duties.
The Chief Justice said the policy shift could pose security risks for judges and affect the independence of the judiciary.
However, Justice Minister Delroy Chuck told Radio Jamaica News that Wednesday's meeting unearthed serious security issues that judges face in conducting their jobs.
"I don't think that there will be a removal of the security protection of the judges. In fact, some of the concerns that the Chief Justice expressed to the Minister of National Security and myself, I must admit, many of them were not known to us. So these will be taken into consideration as we look forward to see what additional support we can give to our judges," he disclosed.
Some of the issues he said were brought up include judges having to travel to remote areas of the country to try cases as well as the fact that a large number of judges are women who drive themselves to and from work.
An internal assessment by the Jamaica Constabulary Force in 2020 showed that the Protective Services Division ranked among the largest police divisions with a complement of 515 officers.
In announcing the new policy last week, National Security Minister Dr. Horace Chang said the deployment of trained police officers to carry out close protection support for public officials had resulted in the under-utilisation of law enforcers who were trained to fight crime.
comments powered by Disqus
All feeds
