A wholly revised Police Bill – which governs the operation, powers and responsibilities of law enforcement in the Cayman Islands – will reduce the total number of days from 12 to eight that police officers can hold criminal suspects in lock-up without charging them, if the bill is passed by the Legislative Assembly.

Lawmakers could take up the proposal as early as next week.

The proposal also gives detained suspects the right to contact a lawyer within 24 hours and family members within 48 hours of their detainment. However, the police are not required to inform detained suspects of that right at any point.

Currently, Royal Cayman Islands Police may hold arrested suspects for up to 12 days, assuming the appropriate police supervisors and the courts approve of the continuing detention.

Under the Police Bill (2010), an officer who does not have sufficient grounds to charge a suspect he has arrested, but believes detention is necessary to complete the investigation or to question the suspect, can have the suspect held for a period “not exceeding 72 hours from the time of the arrest”.

An officer of chief inspector’s rank or above can authorise the detention of that same suspect for another 24 hours without charge if that officer believes police have “reasonable grounds” for doing so.

After the expiration of the 96 hours – four days – the bill would require police to go to a magistrate to further detain the individual without criminal charges. Under the current procedure, police only have to go to a court after the suspect has been detained for nine days. 

“A person may not be kept in police detention after the period referred to [96 hours]…except upon the order of a summary court made on the application of a police officer,” the bill states.

Under the law, that application to hold the suspect further without charge would have to be made in a closed court session; in other words the public would not be able to observe the proceedings. If the court is satisfied that detaining the suspect without charge is necessary to question him or her, or to obtain further evidence, and that the investigation is being conducted “diligently and expeditiously”, it can order the person’s detention for another 72 hours.

In “exceptional circumstances”, police can ask that the detained suspect be held without charge for a further 24 hours, essentially giving the Summary Court the option to authorise the detainment of an arrested person for an additional four days without charge.

“If, at the end of the periods of 72 hours and 24 hours…the person is not charged, he shall be released without further reference to the court,” the Police Bill (2010) states. “(He) may be re-arrested for the offence for which he was previously arrested if new information…has come to light since his release.”

The earlier release guidelines are tempered by the fact that RCIPS officers can now electronically monitor suspects who are released on police bail, even if they have not been charged with any offence.

The Bail (Amendment) Law, 2010 – approved by the Legislative Assembly earlier this year - allows those released without charge on police bail to have an electronic monitoring device attached to them if they are released under curfew conditions. A number of suspects have been released under those circumstances since the electronic monitoring or ‘tagging’ system was implemented in January.

Arrest rights

The Police Bill (2010) also contains specific guidelines for how an arrested person should be handled by RCIPS officers.

Although police have said many times that they inform an individual of the reasons for their arrest, the bill spells out the requirement to do so “as soon as practicable”, except in cases where someone attempts to escape.

Anyone arrested is entitled to have a friend or relative notified of the arrest as soon as possible, except in cases where the bill permits delay of that notification. Those circumstances include detention for an indictable (major) offence, a firearms offence, or a drugs offence.

In most cases, the delay in contacting friends or relatives cannot last beyond 24 hours. However, a police superintendent can give written authorisation to extend that delay “if in his opinion, the circumstances of the case are exceptional and merit such further delay”.

An arrested suspect must also be allowed to contact an attorney within 24 hours – without exception – for legal representation following arrest. However, the arrested suspect must make a request to do so and does not have to be informed of this right by police officers.

UK model followed

The Police Bill (2010) as written does not introduce an American-style “right to remain silent” for criminal suspects who are arrested, but rather uses the UK model, which allows judges and juries to draw what are called “adverse inferences” from a person’s refusal to speak or omission of evidence to police.

The bill states that in “any proceedings” where a suspect fails to mention any fact to a police officer during questioning that is then relied upon in his defence to a court or jury may “draw such inferences from the failure as appear proper”. The same rule applies to the suspect when they are charged with an offence or officially informed that they “might be prosecuted for it”.

Negative inferences cannot be drawn in such a case where the suspect is not allowed to contact an attorney before being questioned or charged.

At trial, the bill allows judges and juries to draw “such inferences as appear proper from the failure of the accused to give evidence or his refusal, without good cause, to answer any question”.

The bill would not outright force criminal suspects to testify in their own defence. They cannot be held in contempt of court for refusing to answer questions in their own defence.