Members of the Police Officers Association (POA) say the ease with which some offenders are afforded bail is derailing the constabulary’s efforts to fight crime and are urging the Government to fast track crucial pieces of legislation to give law enforcement more teeth.

According to POA member, Senior Superintendent Wray Palmer, the courts need to give more attention to the granting of bail as accused persons are being allowed to return to the streets to continue committing crimes.

“What I would like to see is that the courts look at how they administer bail, because what happens now is almost everybody who goes before the courts comes out on bail. We need to consider the freedom of a violent criminal versus the security of the nation,” Palmer, who is assigned to the Mobile Reserve, told reporters and editors at the Observer’s weekly Monday Exchange at the newspaper’s Beechwood Avenue offices yesterday.

Palmer and three other POA members, including chairman Superintendent Michael James, were guests at the weekly discussion. He also called on the judiciary to impose lengthy sentences on persons who are found guilty.

“We find that people are given suspended sentences for serious crimes,” said Palmer. “We believe that the courts should be handing down longer sentences so that people stay in custody for longer periods and others who are of like-mind get the message and this will serve as a deterrent.”

Last week, Assistant Commissioner of Police Les Green chided the Government for dragging its feet on the issue of DNA testing which, if passed into law, would greatly aid the fight against crime.

Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn was also critical of the State and said effective legislation would go a far way in arming Government prosecutors with modern weapons to build airtight cases in court.

Yesterday, Superintendent James added his voice to the chorus of criticism.

“At our conference earlier this year we spoke to it, that the crime bills are there languishing and the politicians were there literally having a picnic and not dealing with it although crime was one of the concerns of the majority of us,” he said in reference to six bills tabled in the House of Representatives in September 2008 by Prime Minister Bruce Golding as part of the administration’s anti-crime measures. “The need for legislation to assist in dealing with the crime challenge that we are having cannot be over-emphasised. We are in full support of additional legislative tools to assist in crime fighting.”

The six bills, which were drafted following bipartisan discussions between the Government and the Opposition in the wake of a serious crime wave which gripped the country early in 2008 are:

. An Act to make interim provision extending the powers of arrest and detention under sections 50B and 50F of the Constabulary Force Act;

. An Act to further amend the Firearms Act, to provide for a minimum sentence of 15 years for certain convictions;

. An Act to amend the Parole Act to allow for persons sentenced to 15 years to life for specified firearms offences to be denied parole before completing 10 years sentence;

. An Act to amend the Offences Against the Person Act to provide for a minimum custodial sentence of 15 years for persons convicted in the Circuit Court of shooting or wounding;

. An Act to make interim provision, in relation to the grant of bail in specified circumstances, for accused persons to be detained for up to 60 days on certain charges; and

. An Act seeking to amend the Bail Act to require the accused to satisfy the court that bail should be granted and conferring on the Director of Public Prosecutions the right of appeal where bail is granted by the court.

Yesterday, James was also critical of people who seemed hell bent on making life difficult for the law to be enforced.

“It would appear that any legislation designed to put people behind bars gets more challenge than support in this country,” James said.

James and his colleagues – Palmer, Deputy Superintendent Hillary Williams and Senior Superintendent Glenford Hudson – all voiced their support for the enforcement of the death penalty.