Police to keep prints, biodata for 7 years after charges dropped
The proposed Virgin Islands Police Act, 2023 which is currently before the House of Assembly (HOA) for debate, has removed an earlier provision to destroy fingerprints and other personal data of persons acquitted of charges faced by the police.
This change is one of the dozens of revisions made to the 2019 version of the Bill after it had attracted major concerns and public backlash.
In Section 28 of the 2019 version of the proposed Bill which was rejected by lawmakers, it was stated that “on the acquittal of any person whose photographs, descriptions, measurements, fingerprints, palmprints, footprints or other physical specimens have been taken pursuant to this Part, such photographs, descriptions, measurements, fingerprints, palmprints, footprints or physical specimens shall be destroyed or handed over to that person at his or her option.”
That section was contingent on subsection (4) of Section 28 which argues that, in instances where the Commissioner of Police believes this information should not be destroyed, an application should be made before the courts for the retention of this data.
According to the previous Bill, this provision would be triggered in instances where the Commissioner has reasonable grounds to suspect that the person has been involved in the commission of another offence for which they have not yet been charged.
But in the latest edition of the Bill — the 2023 version — a section retitled ‘storage of records of identification’ now eliminates any provision for an application to be made to keep any personal information.
Instead, the new Bill proposes that in instances where a person is acquitted, is not charged, or is charged but the prosecution does not proceed with the charge, or the proceedings are discontinued, that private information “shall be stored in a database maintained by the police service for a period of seven years”.
It was not made clear why the option to seek court intervention was removed from the revised version of the Bill.
The proposed Police Act, 2023 was introduced to the HOA last week and is scheduled for debate in tomorrow’s sitting of the House.
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So why when the USVI take our prints upon entry and keep them it isn’t an issue too?
I have no problem with this, all over the world our bio data is stored when travelling so whats the peoblem if you might have commited a crime, is it just incase you commit another crime within 7 years and they have you bang to rights!
It really not an Issue of Police doing their Job. It’s the Issue of giving some malicious, conceited, arrogant, lawless Officers the edge to harass, intimidate, disturb and probably frame up individuals dued to their personal feelings. They can’t say it doesn’t happen within the Force because if they keeping records legit and lawfully, they are there. Plus you have some Officers appearing Community oriented, but having their understudies carrying out mischief and misconduct on their behalves. Whom ever this touch( Officer) you know you are guilty and thus should either change for the betterment of yourself and the Force or may the Force fall from You.
@ no problem – this is problematic for a number of reasons (1) it is irrelevant what other jurisdictions are doing as we have an opportunity here to shape our community so what is done in the US or elsewhere isn’t a main reason (2) I have the presumption of innocence by way of an inherent right under the constitution, having this information on hand means that this right can be overriden by an over zealous police officer. (3) If the police take my print for a traffic offense per-say can you say that my prints could be used in the investigation of another unrelated matter. Do I not have the right to my data? Would this be a means to circumvent my write to the presumption of innocence?
But if you are innocent, then your print would show that, would it not?
Revoke the immigration status of the criminal elements of the offending demographic in the VI and place a moratorium on entrance from their countries.
In addition empty the prison except the lifers and bann reentry to the VI for life. Detain lifers from the Caribbean elsewhere in the UK.
The current situation needs exceptional recourse. A Police crackdown as proposed is warranted,in my opinion.
The Police should also be outfitted with guns until law and order is restored in the VI.
The current situation is dire and made so in part by some duly elected, and directly by the deposed Premier for their personal criminal gain.
@@Licher – how many innocent ppl get charged with crimes? The right to a presumption of innocence is a bedrock fundamental human right …. “Do I want to chop down all the trees in the Forrest in search of the devil? When the wind turns on me, where will I seek protection?”
So basically they want to make it so that the commissioner no longer has to make a reasonable case in a court for why your data should be kept even though the charges against you are dropped. Next thing is how does the public even be sure that this data is actually deleted after the 7 years my bet is that you in that database forever. Its like you guilty despite the fact that they failed to prove so.
Instead, the new Bill proposes that in instances where a person is acquitted, is not charged, or is charged but the prosecution does not proceed with the charge, or the proceedings are discontinued, that private information “shall be stored in a database maintained by the police service for a period of seven years”.
THIS will be tantamount an invasion of privacy that the constitution protects. Come on people. We cannot endorse this.
We cant allow these abuses of our privacy to enter into law
In a world where they already are illegally mass surveilling all of us!
They deny deny deny when its been exposed!
No consequences to their illegal actions yet!
We wonder where these laws come from and why we and rushing to implement them do you think the wars going on around the world have anything to do with it?
They want that BIOMETRIC data for the draft and all manner of evil as we saw when Covid-19 mandatory vaccination plan loomed over our heads.
Now people are having adverse reactions and even dying due to their un tested money maker!
Its weapons of mass destruction all over again!! Except in reverse as governments tried to poison us under threat of financial ruin.
More lies they come up with to get rid of privacy in our democratic society & introduce slavery 2.0 this time its electronic.
We do not know what direction the world is heading
Eroding our rights to privacy, removing the need for warrants and storing BIODATA for long periods unnecessarily is increasingly becoming INCREDIBLY dangerous.
God forbid Hitler had the type of data they want to collect with modern tech to boot and carry out his evil agenda…
or the type of warrantless search.
oh wait he did have warrantless search which was used to flush out the Ane Franks of Germany.
Erosion of our privacy, collection of DNA data which IS capable of cloning a human being, warrantless search and immunity in their execution
ALL these things have ZERO to do with keeping us safe from criminals.
ZEROOOOOOOOO! We’re more likely to get drafted into ww3 by these laws than have these abuses of rights & privacy used for anything just.
And that includes all of you police officers.
They’ll sign you up first if they dont need you to keep the order when they want to start using us to fight -again-
slavers dont change their stripes – hell they haven’t even apologized yet.
We are so colonized, bamboozled & still passing neocolonial laws its not funny.
YOU DID NOT READ that is why you have no problem with it. Its not about storing data on criminals, its storing data on people who have not been charged!
Reading comprehension is a must. I wouldnt like it if you were a police with that level of error.
Must be why they are asking for immunity for when they screw up & abuse our rights by ‘mistake with those warrantless searches…
“Instead, the new Bill proposes that in instances where a person is acquitted, is not charged, or is charged but the prosecution does not proceed with the charge, or the proceedings are discontinued, that private information “shall be stored in a database maintained by the police service for a period of seven years”.
Suppose a criminal came from abroad commits numerous crimes and was arrested for a small matter. He left this territory for a year or two then return to do some more criminal act. Where is the biometrics to charge him for the previous offenses. Would he not be free to commit crimes over and over again? The reason for the retention is that sometimes it takes a while for crimes to to be linked and with the bio being scrubbed a prolific criminal will not be detected.