| Cabinet approves tabling of Finger Print Bill |
| Observer Reporter Friday, April 04, 2003 |
CABINET on Monday approved the tabling of a Finger Print Bill in Parliament.
The Bill seeks to amend the principal Finger Print Act to provide legal authority for the finger printing and photographing, without a Court Order, of persons taken into custody in connection with certain specified offences. In addition, the new legislation seeks to institute new schedules of offences and increase the penalties for a breach of the rules relating to the work of the Finger Print Bureau and for breaches of the Act.
Speaking at Monday's post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, information minister, Burchell Whiteman said the finger printing and photographing of suspects had been widely accepted as essential features of modern law enforcement throughout the world.
"The Government, in its continuing drive to update and modernise legislation in this area, has therefore decided to amend the existing law in order to standardise Jamaican law, in keeping with established practices in most Commonwealth jurisdictions and in the United States," he told reporters.