While top defence lawyer Mark Pettingil welcomed proposed amendments to the Police Act, he said he would wait and see how the law is implemented if it is passed.

On Wednesday, Labour, Home Affairs and Public Safety Affairs Minister Terry Lister tabled the Police Amendment Act 2003 during his ministerial debate. The bill is similar to the UK's Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE).

If passed, Police would have stricter rules in how they are allowed to deal with persons detained or brought in for questioning.

If enacted, it would include regulations on when and how a person can be searched and the assurance that a detained person can exercise the right to inform someone of their whereabouts. "Anything that deals with improving our system is good. For years I've been saying that we needed changes, " Mr. Pettingil said. "God only knows we need some reform in our criminal justice system. I'm now interested in seeing the implementation of it."

"It's always encouraging to see these things being done," he said.

As he commented on some of the proposed amendments which appeared in this paper, lawyer Larry Scott said he was particularly happy about tighter restrictions on the amount of time a person can be detained.

"They (Police) have the 72-hour rule and sometimes it's abused. They'll pick up a kid on Friday night and sometimes hold him longer."

Mr. Scott also said in the past he and other lawyers had travel to different Police stations in a wild goose chase to find their clients because they were being constantly moved by officers.

"That stops under PACE," he said. "As soon as they are held, they can call a lawyer or someone who can contact one for them."

In addition, he said, Police will have to be sharper when collecting their evidence because former ways of doing so will be severely curtailed under the new legislation.

"The rights of the detained person will be protected," Mr. Scott said.

But when asked if he thought the proposed bill lacked anything, he said: "I don't know what provisions are covered because I haven't seen the Act in full.

"There are important provisions in the UK bill. I hope we will have the same."