AG says police wiretaps saved lives; backs new law for privacy safeguards

The police have used covert interception of communications to foil planned killings, Attorney General Dale Marshall told Parliament on Friday, as he made the case for new legislation to formally regulate wiretapping and enshrine privacy protections.

Tabling the Interception of Communications Bill in the House of Assembly, Marshall said the measure would place long-used but little-discussed police techniques on firm legal footing, with constitutional safeguards for citizens’ privacy.

“To my certain knowledge, they have been able to prevent executions. They have saved lives because of the availability of this tool,” he said, noting that interception has been part of policing “for decades” across multiple administrations.

Marshall said the legislation follows a landmark 2018 Caribbean Court of Justice ruling which for the first time recognised a constitutional right to privacy.

Until then, successive attorneys general had held the view that no such right existed, and interception was carried out without a specific statutory framework.

“Do we allow this important tool to be used in the dark, or do we allow it with the necessary constitutional protection, with the necessary statutory authority, and with the appropriate guardrails to protect the privacy of the citizens? That’s what governance is about,” he told the chamber.

The attorney general described interception as a standard investigative method around the world and legislated for in many Caribbean countries, adding that Barbados was “coming late to this dance”, despite law enforcement’s long reliance on it to prevent serious crimes.

He argued that without the new law, police risk losing important investigative methods even as criminals are becoming more sophisticated.

“We cannot on one hand be saying we want the police to reap tremendous success but want to hamstring their efforts at investigating crime,” he said.

“We can’t have it both ways. We want to be safe in our beds, and we want to be safe in our streets. But somehow, there are some of us who feel that we should [weaken] the police service. I am not in those people’s corner.”

He also rejected claims that the administration has been soft on crime, pointing to a series of measures since 2018, including amendments to the Firearms Act to introduce mandatory minimum sentences, legislation for judge-alone trials, and other reforms aimed at strengthening law enforcement.

“From the time we came to government, it is clearly to be seen that this administration has bent over backwards to make sure that all of the legislative tools that are required for the arsenal of law enforcement have been made available,” he added.

The Interception of Communications Bill is part of a wider package of criminal justice legislation that also includes amendments to the Police Act, Firearms Act and Juries Act, as well as new witness anonymity provisions. (SM)