THE Supreme Court has put the brakes on the move by Police Commissioner Dr Kevin Blake to remove Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Wayne Cameron as the head of the Police Officers’ Association (POA) pending a judicial review.

Lawyers representing Cameron had gone to the courts to seek an injunction to prevent Blake from enforcing his directive that the chair of the POA be vacated and that members meet to instal an acting chairman.

In a ruling handed down on Friday, the court said Cameron has been granted his application for judicial review of the decisions by Blake in a letter dated September 8, 2025, that the chair of the POA be vacated.

“The grant of leave to apply for judicial review is conditional upon the applicant [Cameron] making a claim for judicial review within 14 days of receipt of the order granting leave.

“An interim injunction is granted restraining the respondent [Blake], whether acting in concert, by himself, his servants and/or agents or otherwise howsoever from directing or causing to be convened any meeting of the Police Officers’ Association for the purposes of removing the applicant as chairman and appointing a chairman pro tem or otherwise, pending the determination of the claim for judicial review or further orders of the court,” the court ruled.

It added that the implementation of Blake’s decision “is hereby stayed pending the determination of the claim for judicial review or until further orders of the court”.

The matter was heard in chambers on December 8 and 11, 2025, and on January 9, 2026.

In making its ruling the court sought to determine:

“Whether the applicant has an arguable ground with a realistic prospect of success;

Whether the threshold for leave to apply for judicial review is a low one;

Whether the POA is an incorporated or an unincorporated association;

Whether the POA is an entity which is known to law;

Whether the decision of the commissioner of police to direct that the position of the chairman of the Police Officers’ Association be vacated was in breach of the articles of incorporation of the association or of the rules of the association; and

CAMERON… you cannot remove someone from office without a tribunal

Whether the decision of the commissioner of police was illegal by way of an order of certiorari to quash the said decisions.”

Cameron has repeatedly argued that the commissioner of police has no authority to remove a POA chairman from his position.

He has maintained that the POA chairman is selected from the floor of the association’s conference at which more than two-thirds of the officers of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) are present, and that was done at the last conference in November 2022.

Cameron also rejected the commissioner’s claim that “reports of alleged indiscipline and misconduct by the chairman may compromise the conduct of the POA, particularly at a time when the organisation is required to engage in highly technical salary and benefits negotiations with the Government of Jamaica”.

He argued, “You cannot remove someone from office without a tribunal, without it being heard. So an allegation is an allegation. If you are judge and jury, then by all means you can refer to someone as being indisciplined, but what I do know is that anyone who is incited by any form of impropriety would have to be brought before a tribunal.

“That has not been done… I have not been brought before any tribunal,” said Cameron.

The judicial review is set for May 19.