Attorney-at-Law, Lloyd McFarlane, has warned the St James Police of possible breaches of the constitution in their implementation of a programme to get children off the streets in the parish.
He is cautioning the police that there is a risk of making themselves liable to claims against the State for false imprisonment.
The programme - loosely called a curfew, aims to have children off the streets by a certain time each night.
The police, as well as community monitors, supervise the programme, which was previously implemented in West Kingston.
McFarlane says the police need a legal basis to restrict the movement of persons.
He warns that the procedure adopted by the police under the programme is putting the Force at risk.
"I'm saying that this country operates by rule of law, the police cannot get up and decide that this is in the best interest of the child and then act as they see fit . There has to be a legal basis, so you have to have a situation in which the police get laws passed - the only way in which they can justify their actions is by the consent of the senate and this consent that the Superintendent is talking about appears to be coming after they have intercepted a child and taken them to the home."
Meanwhile, Senior Superintendent Steve McGregor has defended the actions of the police under the programme.
He outlines that there is no detention of children but rather an intervention initiated by parents and community members.
"We are not arresting anybody, we are not picking up anybody. It is the police alongside citizens who are in fact parents. We have some monitors that have been trained. We are not talking about just seeing children walking on the street and approaching them . So it will be citizens with citizens, it is just that the police will supervise the problem," McGregor said.
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