ANKARA - AKP group deputy chair Mehmet Muş has submitted a draft bill to the parliament seeking to grant watchmen the authority to ask identification from people and detain them. The AKP’s move came in the wake of two court rulings which said that the watchmen do not have the “authority to ask for identification as per their job definition.”

 

A deputy from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has submitted a draft bill to the parliament seeking to grant watchmen the authority to ask for identification from people and detain them.

 

The draft bill, which consists of 18 articles, says that when “an incident arises,” the watchmen will detain the people involved in the relevant “incident” and then will notify the policy.

 

Also, “to intervene in the incident, to guard the evidence in the crime scene, to make sure that it does not get lost and to prevent it from being removed” will be among the watchmen’s duties, according to the draft law submitted by AKP group deputy chair Mehmet Muş.

 

Muş also said that the watchmen cooperate with police forces under the current law, but the new legislation will also allow them to call the gendarmerie and work with them if necessary.