KINGSTON, Jamaica — As the Jamaican Senate wrapped up debate and passed a revised version of the 2026 Cybercrimes Bill last Friday, a key opposition lawmaker used the legislative moment to push for sweeping new transparency measures for the nation’s police force, amid growing public concern over a sharp uptick in fatal police shootings.
Opposition Senator Allan Bernard is calling for the creation of a comprehensive digital accountability regime that would enshrine a mandatory statutory body-worn camera policy for all officers of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF). The push comes as the country grapples with a troubling spike in fatal police encounters: 115 fatal shootings have been recorded by police so far this year, a 32 percent jump from the 87 deaths recorded in the same period in 2025.
Bernard’s call also directly pushes back against recent comments from the island’s top security official, National Security Minister Dr. Horace Chang, who publicly dismissed previous demands for body camera use during specialized police operations, dismissing the idea as “crazy”.
While Bernard confirmed that the opposition bloc remains supportive of the amended Cybercrimes Bill, he stressed that the conversation around digital accountability must extend beyond regulation of private citizens to cover state actors themselves. He argued that true national security cannot be separated from adherence to constitutional protections, and that public safety must always be rooted in respect for basic human rights.
“Digital accountability must apply not only to the governed but also to those who are doing the governing,” Bernard said in remarks on the Senate floor. “That means oversight of the police, their searches, their seizures, their arrests and too oftentimes in Jamaica, the extrajudicial killings.”
Reporting by Lynford Simpson