Wrong Information is Not a Crime

Criminalizing harmless behavior — like failing to report card damage or to fully share non-essential information — is a dangerous abuse of power.

Providing any kind of “False Information” and failing to notify the Authority if a card is lost, stolen, or damaged are both considered criminal offences under the current Bill. There is a lot of information collected by the Authority that is irrelevant to identify a person, and enrolling in NIDS is supposed to be voluntary and optional. Why should people that failed to provide certain personal details or to report damage to their ID card be punished?

What This Could Look Like in Real Life

01. Mavis' Employment Status is an Offence
02. Catherine's Spousal Information Might be an Offence
03. Eithan's Dog Got Him Into Trouble

Mavis is unemployed and looking for work. The passport she previously used as an ID has expired and she has decided to register for a NIDS card instead. She doesn’t want “unemployed” to be associated with her identity so she writes “domestic worker”, which is the job she’s worked for the last 4 years.

According to the Bill, Mavis could be charged with an offence because she did not include her current employment status. She could be fined up to $2 million dollars.

[Based on NIRA 2020, Section 11]

Catherine recently moved to Jamaica for a job with an international organization. She has been accompanied by her partner, Sarah. They are both registering for NIDS cards as individuals ordinarily resident in Jamaica.

The bill makes one of two things possible. Catherine and Sarah could enrol and list each other as their spouses. In this case, NIDS will become the first public institution to recognise same-sex unions. Or, Catherine and Sarah could leave out their spousal information and therefore commit an offence before the law.

Eithan just got a puppy. It’s super playful and mischievous, especially if left unsupervised. One day Eithan got back from the supermarket and left all the groceries on the table while he started preparing the lunch. He also left his ID card.

The puppy playfully took the card and by the time Eithan realized it, it already had a part missing. Eithan decided to use other ID options when necessary, like his license or passport, and did not report it to the Authority.

According to Section 16(12), Eithan is committing an offence when failing to report the damage of his card.

Details

According to Section 10(7), a person commits a criminal offence if they give false information when providing, modifying, or confirming data for an entry to the National Identification Databases, or when obtaining or replacing a National Identification Card. While people are encouraged to be truthful, a decision to not share full details of life should not be a criminal offence, especially given that most of the identity information that the Authority will be empowered to require for enrolment is not necessary to establish a person’s legal identity, such as their occupation, place of residence, or marital status, among others.

Providing false information should only be considered an offence if it is essential information (like the name, for example) that undermines the Authority’s capacity to accurately establish an identity.

Section 16(12) of the current Bill also says that a person who fails to notify the Authority of the loss, theft, or damage of a National Identification Card “without reasonable excuse” commits an offence. This means that even not reporting that your dog chewed your ID card, or that it was lost during a party, running, or any other possible situation, will be prosecutable.

Criminalizing this kind of failure to report far exceeds what is a reasonable use of the State’s power, especially considering participation in the system is supposed to be voluntary and optional. Under further review, such an offence would most likely be found in violation of human rights and the constitution, and the stipulation should be deleted.

Recommendations

To trigger an offence, the bill should require that the information provided has demonstrably undermined the Authority’s ability to establish the person’s identity accurately.
The bill should explicitly limit the offence to only identity information required to establish a person’s identity and exclude decisions not to disclose non-essential information.
Repeal the offence of failure to notify the Authority if a card is lost, stolen, damaged, etc.

Status: Pending

Watch this space! We will provide an update once the Joint Select Committee has made a decision on this issue.

Last updated 2021-05-27

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