The Zones of Special Operations Bill 2026 has sparked a debate in the public domain, and Minister of Defence Wayne Sturge sought to set the record straight on what the Bill will be seeking to do, including the safeguards it contains.
Defence Minister Wayne Sturge has defended the Law Reform (Zones of Special Operations) Bill 2026, noting that it does not seek to hamper the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens.
The Bill allows the Prime Minister, sitting in the National Security Council with the Commissioner of Police and the Chief of Defence Staff, to declare a defined geographical area as a Zone of Special Operations for a maximum of one hundred and eighty days.
“There are provisions in the bill which allows for areas within the zone to be the subject of a cordon for a minimum of twenty-four hours and for a curfew to be imposed within the cordon for a maximum of seventy-two hours.”
The provisions that deal with arrest and detention have four safeguards. One states that the court, in order to continue with the detention of the person detained, must be satisfied that their detention is justifiable on the basis of evidence-based reasonableness and necessity. Hence, if the police cannot satisfy the court, then the person detained must be released.
“The second one is that the bill provides that a person arrested and detained must be brought before a court promptly; the bill further imposes a burden on designated first division police officers to ensure compliance with time limits relative to arrest and detention, and to ensure that the person detained is brought before the court in compliance with the act.”
Minister Sturge dismissed claims that race will be used in declaring any area a Zone of Special Operations, describing them as hollow. He also dismissed notions that the entire declared zone will be subjected to curfew and cordon.
“That obviously is impracticable and not feasible for manpower reasons; the whole point is that within the zone, there will be targeted operations, and when there is a targeted operation, it will not be a whole two-mile radius; it will be a targeted operation, perhaps in a small zone, a street or two, where there will be a cordon and there will be a curfew.”
As the Government continues to destabilise and dismantle gangs while eradicating turf wars, Minister of Defence Wayne Sturge reflected on the Government’s decision to remove programmes it believed provided a source of funds for rogue elements.