Some have said that the tone being taken by the AG and the Commissioner of Police have been very different in reference to state of emergency passes. The AG has said there will be none for a week, and very few issued at all, because no one should be out during the curfew. The COMPOL on the hand has been a little more permissive in his overview.
This evening commissioner Williams told us that while he agrees with the AG's stern opinions when it comes to the movements of essential workers, law enforcement quote; "Must allow common sense to prevail."
Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police
"We are dealing with a monster that is unknown and the police cannot be seen to be too soft, so we have to ensure that whatever we do it is done in a way that the public understand that we are serious and I guess you are trying to say that the minister say anybody who is on the streets will be arrested. Well, myself and the minister, we communicate every day, sometimes 3,4,5 times a day depending on the situation and we both agree that when it comes to doctors, nurses, police officers, customs, immigration - they are going and coming from work during the curfew hours they don't need a pass from the minister. The persons who need the pass are those non-essential workers who do not work around that time. Those are the ones who need the pass, but as police officers we must always that common sense prevail. We see the doctor going to work maybe 9pm and you know when it comes to the specialist who works at the hospital, they don't work around the clock. They work on calls. So if there is a situation at the hospital then they need a specialist to come in. The specialist is called and then he goes to the hospital. So he can be called at any hour of the night or day and he need to respond. So once it is that he can say to the police I'm a doctor, I'm going to the hospital on a call, then the police should allow him to go. We see the nurse in her uniform going to work, then she is allowed to go to work. They don't need a pass from the minister to do that. But the media for example, if you need to be out after the curfew hours then you need a pass, because there is no specific reason for you to be want to be out after the curfew hours. So it's a matter of making people understand where you work, the scope of your duty to see if it falls within those category of persons who by all account need to be on the street during the curfew hours."
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