Jada Loutoo
A Rio Claro man has bought the Excessive Court’s permission to pursue judicial evaluate against the Commissioner of Police (CoP) for failing to acknowledge adequately to his ask for minute print on his firearm user’s licence (FUL) utility.
Michael Hernandez wants salvage admission to to issue minute print on his utility and has cited delays and incomplete responses from the police provider.
Justice Frank Seepersad granted him leave on December 18, and the matter will come up for a hearing on January 20, 2025.
In accordance to court docket documents, Hernandez filed his freedom of files ask on August 9, asking for chunky documentation on his FUL utility, including all minutes, popularity updates, whether his file had been despatched to the Firearms Allow Unit for detect and causes for the prolong in processing his enable, despite his having a provisional licence.
Though the police partially replied by September 18, he mentioned they did now not present severe minute print, including the total FUL file.
He bought no further dialog despite repeated issue-united statesfor knowledge.
Hernandez contended that the commissioner’s failure to follow Freedom of Recordsdata Act (FOIA) timelines became a breach of her statutory responsibility beneath Piece 15 of the act, which requires responses within 30 days.
He argued that the prolong became unreasonable, irrational and an abuse of discretion, depriving him of his reliable expectation of timely disclosure. He wants a declaration that the commissioner violated the FOIA by failing to acknowledge within the statutory timeframe.
He also wants an negate compelling the commissioner, Erla Harewood-Christopher, to settle on his FOIA ask within seven days, as well to salvage admission to to the requested non-exempt knowledge.
Hernandez is represented by Genevieve Thompson and Petronilla Basdeo.
