Judge Rules in Police Profiling Case

Leslie Mendez

Today, Supreme Court Justice Westmin James handed down a decision in the case brought against the Belize Police Department by Greg Nunez and myself. Legal recourse was sought after we felt that our rights had been violated because without any probable cause or intelligence to suggest that we were involved in any criminal activity, police officers took our picture during a stop and search on August fourth of 2020 that yielded nothing. The judge ruled that it is unconstitutional.

Leslie Mendez, Attorney-at-law

“They brought their claims on the grounds that this practice actually constitutes a violation of their right to protection against arbitrary searches, their right to privacy through the taking of the photographs as well as the right to human dignity. And today we got the decision from Justice Westmin James confirming that indeed the practice does constitute the violation of their rights under the constitution.”

Greg Nunez

Greg Nunez, Claimant

“I don’t necessarily feel vindicated because I have always known that the stop and search and the taking of photograph constitutes an unlawful act, a measure by the police department – I’ve always known that and it has been well ventilated in the media as well as in certain public domains. Every corner that you go, you see police troops just randomly have a group of young men just string up, getting their photographs taken and it is just so easy to see that there is no real justification or reasonable cause for that search. My experience of it, especially the level of aggression that was involved in my case, where the police officers field that there was a level of impunity to operate me the way he wanted to, to overlook my requests for his name and then when subsequent attempts at the police station to get his name resulted in his belligerent behaviour. So those things to me were important issues that I think needed to be addressed.”