It’s not our firm

THE EDITOR: A message purporting to be a statement from our firm, M Hamel-Smith & Co, on the ability – or rather the inability – of male police officers to arrest female citizens at night is being circulated via e-mail and WhatsApp.

This message asserts that “it is a procedural issue that a woman can be arrested between 6 pm and 6 am only if she is arrested by a woman officer and taken to an all-women police station. If she is arrested by a male officer, it has to be proven that a woman officer was on duty at the time of arrest.”

This message did not originate from our firm. Unfortunately, our name came to be falsely associated with this message approximately ten years ago when it was being circulated via e-mail. Regrettably, despite our efforts to disown the message, it has reappeared and is now being circulated via WhatsApp.

Aside from the concern that our firm has been falsely associated with advice that we have not given, it is doubly troubling that the advice itself is wrong.

Under the Police Service Act of TT there are no limitations on a officer’s exercise of his or her power of arrest along the lines asserted in the fake message, whether based on the gender of the arresting officer or that of the alleged offender, nor is there any such limitation with respect to the time of day when the officer may make an arrest.

The message is fake news. Its association with our firm is deeply regretted.

NICOLE FERREIRA-AARON

managing partner