U and THE POLICE

Bail is a form of undertaking that an offender will make himself/herself available whenever he/she is needed until the investigation is completed.

Earlier, we discussed the three categories of offences which are

1. Simple offences
2. Misdemeanor
3. Felony

If you are involved in a simple offence or misdemeanor, bail is almost automatic. The constitution specifies that bail should be granted to you within the first 24 hours of arrest. In other words, a suspect cannot be detained for more than 24hours when he or she is involved in simple offences or misdemeanor.

Well, what if your offence falls under felony? In that case, the police have the right to refuse granting of bail and also keep in mind that they are under the obligation to charge you to court as soon as possible. They are not supposed to detain a suspect unnecessarily, in fact, you have the right to request for bail and if the police won't be granting bail, you have the right to ask them to charge you to court immediately. This is regardless of the category of offence committed.

Police may also decide to grant bail in cases of felony but the condition that must be met before such grant is usually very stringent.

Moreover, bail is free. If you have ever paid a police officer to be granted bail, you have committed a crime that is punishable by seven years imprisonment for both yourself and the police officer that collected the money.

For simple offences and misdemeanor, the process of obtaining bail from police is to present a responsible person, probably a government worker with good post or a notable person in the society that will sign an undertaking for you. This undertaking will specify that you will not run away and will always make yourself available anytime you are needed during the course of investigation. Whoever signs this undertaking is known as a SURETY. Please note that the list of people that can stand surety for you is not limited to the two sets of people stated above.