Senior Reporter
derek.achong@guardian.co.tt
The Court of Appeal has ruled that a former Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) policy of publishing photographs of citizens charged with crimes was unlawful.
Delivering a judgment yesterday, Chief Justice Ronnie Boodoosingh, Mark Mohammed and Peter Rajkumar determined two appeals in cases brought by a pair of police officers, who were accused of corruption.
While the cases were pursued by police officers, the precedent set in the appeals has general application to all persons charged with crimes who could be subjected to the policy before it was stopped as a result of the cases.
The Appeal Court was called upon to weigh in on the legality of the TTPS practice as one High Court Judge upheld PC Rishi Mohan’s case, while another dismissed identical litigation pursued by his colleague and co-accused PC Ronald Ransome.
In August 2022, the duo was slapped with seven misbehaviour in public office charges.
They were accused of soliciting $700,000 from a man to forgo prosecuting him for a criminal offence.
The man reportedly made five payments totalling $201,100 before reporting the officers.
The officers, through their lawyers Lee Merry and Kelston Pope, brought separate constitutional claims as their photographs or mugshots were published by the TTPS on social media and included in a media release highlighting that they were charged.
The TTPS defended the policy as it claimed that its jurisdiction to take photographs of accused persons for identification purposes under the Police Service Act extended to “identification to the public”.
It also claimed that it had a policy to release photos of police officers charged with crimes, as it wanted to show that they (police officers) are not given preferential treatment.
A judge found that Mohan’s constitutional right to privacy was breached, while a colleague ruled that Ransome’s right was not breached as he did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy after being accused of serious crimes.
In determining the appeals over the varying findings, Justice Rajkumar, who wrote the panel’s judgment, noted that the legislation only permitted the TTPS to take and keep the photographs for investigative purposes.
“No legitimate law enforcement purpose has been demonstrated for their publication...No authorisation can be detected in the legislation for the dissemination of that information to the public,” Justice Rajkumar said.
Justice Rajkumar found that the policy breached the duo’s right to privacy and presumption of innocence under the Constitution.
“While the fact that the officers have been charged is a matter that the public is entitled to know, and even the fact that they were members of the police service, there is no justification for additionally publishing their photographs, given the presumption of their innocence until convicted,” he said.
Justice Rajkumar considered negative comments from members of the public in response to the posts including their photographs.
“Publication of the photographs held the officers up to public ridicule and contempt, with many comments being on their appearance in the photographs, and the assertion of their guilt,” he said.
“The potential damage from publication of mugshots was disproportionate to any claimed benefit therefrom or public interest,” he added.
In determining the appropriate compensation for the duo, Justice Rajkumar decided on $10,000, as he noted that reputation damage was unavoidable based on them being charged.
“The additional dissemination of their photographs, while possibly aggravating any such reputational damage, could not therefore be asserted as being the sole or even major cause of such reputational damage or stigma,” he said.
Justice Rajkumar also directed that their mugshots be removed from social media platforms administered by the TTPS as he issued declarations over the policy.
The duo was also represented by Ashleigh Motilal. The Office of the Attorney General was represented by Janique Mitchell, Zara Smith, Chantelle Le Gall, and Melissa Papoonsingh.
