THE constitution must enshrine the protection of the rights and entitlements of each individual pertaining to personal liberty while in custody.
This is the view of Labasa lawyer Amrit Sen as he raised concerns about how police officers who have personal vendetta against certain individuals take them into custody without further enquiries.
Mr Sen said when a person was taken into custody, he or she must be given in writing the reasons for detention.
"The police officers must contemporaneously record it in their notebooks and in the station diaries the reasons for detentions," Mr Sen said.
"It's commonly seen that officers who have personal issues against certain individuals take them into custody without any further inquiry. This generally happens when a person is taken as a suspect and the officer justifies his detention saying investigation is well underway."
He said it meant the officer showed no responsibility to explain to any other person why he had conducted no investigation prior to detaining the suspect.
"There must be sanctions put in place for breaches of personal liberty and if a person is taken into custody, an officer above the rank of a sergeant must determine the detention of the person within one hour and if there are insufficient grounds for detention, he or she must be released.
"If a person is in custody and charged with an offence, he or she must be given bail unless the offence is serious and such offences must be described in the constitution."