Parliament yesterday passed a new law aimed at improving the Police's ability to collect evidence from crime suspects and setting procedures to be followed for arresting and detaining suspects.

The Police Amendment Act 2003 will give the Police the tools "to build cases more effectively when serious crimes are committed", said Public Safety Minister Terry Lister who introduced the bill.

"No piece of legislation can bring back a lost loved one, or hope to undo the hurt victims may have suffered," the Minister said.

"But it does bring into focus the need to do all we can to ensure that people who commit serious crimes are justly dealt with."

The law follows through on recommendations made by the Serious Crimes Commission of Inquiry which looked into how the justice system investigated and prosecuted major crimes and found significant flaws.

It was supported by the Opposition United Bermuda Party (UBP) although Shadow Legislative Affairs Minister John Barritt argued that it will not make any "radical difference" in the war against crime.

It allows the Police to collect "non-intimate" samples, which includes saliva, body surface and covering samples, without the suspect's permission, for DNA analysis.

But blood and other intimate samples cannot be collected without the suspect's permission or medical supervision.

The law also provides a formal means, through making an Order, by which the Governor can bring into force new procedures to be followed by the Police.

"A prime example of this relates to identity parades," Mr. Lister explained. "The police service has developed new and widely accepted modern procedures for the conduct of ID parades but has lacked the legislative mandate to bring them into effect. The bill provides such a mandate."

Mr. Lister described the evidence collection provisions as "powerful and necessary" because they would allow the Police to collect evidence which can "scientifically connect or disconnect a suspect from a crime."

And he said that while the bill was a "balanced, practical and sustainable response" to public safety concerns, it was not the "final piece of the crime solution puzzle".

"It would be fair, however, to suggest that this legislation puts in place some of the corners upon which the puzzle solution can be built," Mr. Lister told his colleagues.

"There are times when it would be easy to take public fear and sentiment about serious crime and produce knee jerk legislative responses that have more to do with politics than public safety. That is not our approach."

Backbencher El James, supporting the bill, said that Police would have to be trained if the measures were to have any success.

"That is the only way we can ensure that each suspect is treated with the same amount of dignity," Mr. James said.

"While I do not condone criminal activity, I do believe suspects should be treated the same."

Said Mr. Barritt : "This is long overdue. Indeed an elephant has laboured and produced mice."

Mr. Barritt said while inroads were being made into the right to silence of an accused, the time to do that had "long since passed".

While this legislation was supported, Police needed the manpower to fight crime effectively, he said.

"It is important to have the manpower for the Police, and all the tools in the world can be useless if you don't have the support in terms of manpower to deliver it, and that was clearly a concern of the (Serious Crime) Commissioners," he said.

The UBP supported reviewing the abolition of the double jeopardy rule in serious cases, but Government had spurned this.

He referred to a case highlighted in yesterday's Bermuda Sun newspaper where a man charged with a serious sex assault walked free from court despite having broken the woman's jaw, and despite having a previous conviction for sex assault. "This woman suffered a broken jaw. When did consensual sex result in broken bones, " he asked.

He questioned what message the failed case was sending out, and said it could result in victims being more reluctant to come forward and report crimes.

The British Government was going further, but he said the PLP did "not have the will to tackle these issues. We've saw them run from double jeopardy and I believe there is no will to get on top of crime and criminals in this country."