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In June of 2013 Barbara Gayle, Justice Coordinator; A Supreme Court judge ruled that the police have no power, under the Road Traffic Act, to arbitrarily stop and search motor vehicles, opening the door for a flood of lawsuits.

The police have repeatedly argued that the law gives them the power to stop and search vehicles, and that this has resulted in the apprehension of criminals, the recovery of stolen vehicles and stolen farm produce.

But Justice David Batts says the police are abusing this power.

Batts made the ruling when he ordered the Government to pay $2.8 million in damages to a motorist who was assaulted by the police when he was stopped in St Catherine in May 2007.

Batts emphasised in the judgment that lawful reasons must be given by the police for stopping and searching a motor vehicle.

Batts has directed the registrar of the Supreme Court to send copies of the judgment to the Office of the Commissioner of Police and to the commissioner of the Independent Commission of Investigations for action to be taken, as seen fit.

The judge said there was some belief that Section 58 of the Road Traffic Act gives power to the police to stop and search vehicles without reasonable cause.

“That act does no such thing,” Batts said in the judgment.

He explained that the act allows for the redirection of traffic or stopping of vehicles for the purposes of traffic flow or some reasonable purpose.

“The request for documents and driver’s licence similarly follow on some existing cause, such as a reasonable suspicion that a crime has been or is about to be committed.

“The reasonable cause to suspect that an individual has or is about to commit a crime must relate to peculiar characteristics of the persons or the vehicle he is driving, or the manner in which it is operated, or to information received,” said Batts.

He said further that in Jamaica, the citizen is free to move about without an obligation to carry a pass, and is not to be subject to arbitrary or random searches.