Stop selective enforcement of tint law

Mar 25, 2015 News

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– Former Traffic Chief
Former Traffic Chief, Deputy Commissioner (rtd) Paul Slowe believes that the selective enforcement of the country’s laws will not help in the fight against traffic lawlessness and other criminal activities.

As Guyana grapples with growing traffic lawlessness, Slowe is of the view that greater enforcement of the law is the key, since there is no shortage of legislation.
“Laws are being enacted, laws are on the books, but the enforcement aspect is weak,” Slowe stated.
He made specific reference to the law regarding the tints on vehicles.
It was during Slowe’s tenure as the country’s traffic chief that the law prohibiting tinted vehicles was enacted.
This was after the Queen’s College Old Students’ Association petitioned the then President Janet Jagan, complaining about the heavily-tinted minibuses which were hiding wrongdoing.
At first the prohibition was to target public transportation, but was subsequently changed to include all vehicles.
According to Slowe, today several persons can be seen driving around with heavily-tinted vehicles and it is unclear if all of them have been issued with permits from the Ministry of Home Affairs to circumvent the law.
As it is, only certain vehicles are permitted to have tints without the expressed permission of the Minister of Home Affairs. These include diplomatic vehicles, and those belonging

to senior government and high-ranking military officials.
However, there is a provision for ordinary persons to obtain waivers for vehicles that are imported with what is termed factory tints. This provides for a person to obtain an initial waiver of three months and one further extension if necessary to replace the tinted windows.
But even this arrangement is not going down well with Slowe, who perhaps more than most understands the entire background to the legislation regarding tinted vehicles.
The retired police officer, who is now a leading regional security expert, believes that the arrangement is being abused.
“As I recall it, and I doubt whether there would have been any amendments along the way, you’re not supposed to have tint on the vehicle. Let’s start off with that basis,” Slowe.
But at the time the law was enacted, there were already vehicles in the system with factory tint and an arrangement was made to have the owners bring them in conformity with the law within a given time; failing which, the certificate of fitness would have been revoked.
According to Slowe, the legislators then made it clear that no more factory-tinted vehicles would have been allowed to be imported after the law was put in place. Today, tinted vehicles appear to have once again become the norm, with motorists driving past the police who seem powerless.
Even ordinary police ranks are taking advantage of the lack of proper enforcement.
The policeman, like any other citizen, has to obtain approval to have tint on his or her vehicle. The police administration had issued instructions for all ranks who have tinted vehicles to have them conform to the law.  But the enforcement aspect of this instruction has its implications.
“It’s not a rank thing, but a constable would not confront an officer, so enforcement has its consequences. It’s not that the Force is condoning this lawlessness. Commissioners from Henry Greene, Brumell and Seelall Persaud have issued instructions for ranks to remove the tints from their vehicles,” a current serving police officer explained.
Yesterday, Traffic Chief Ian Amsterdam told this newspaper that he has advised his ranks to revoke the fitness of those heavily-tinted vehicles driven by their colleagues.
He added that he has also advised his colleague officers to ensure that the ranks under their supervision comply with the tint legislation.
According to former Deputy Commissioner Slowe, when the tint legislation came into being, he was one of the first persons to comply.
“I had the darkest tint on my vehicle and when the law went into being, I know it was a Monday, and the Sunday I sat in my garage and I took it off. And all the ranks who worked with me had to take the tints off their vehicles, because you have to set proper examples,” Slowe said.
He lamented the fact that today one can drive around Guyana and see so many tinted vehicles.
“Some of them even have tints on their front windscreens, you can’t even see the driver through the front windscreen…this thing is utter lawlessness. I’m sure it is illegal and I’m sure that just as how I saw it, other people with the authority – the policemen – would have seen it and they’re not doing anything. So therefore, where are we going?” he added.
Slowe said that it is not difficult for the police to detect vehicles with tinted glasses, since most of them are driven in the daytime, and in some cases, by persons who are known to have had previous brushes with the law.
“Get them to take off the tint and get the authorities to recognize that you just can’t give permission willy-nilly when there is no law to support the giving of such permission. My story is, there is a law and we should obey the law. If you’re not comfortable with the law, then you should lobby and do what you have to do and get it changed,” Slowe declared.
He also lamented that other laws such as using a seatbelt and talking on a cellular phone while driving are also being disregarded, all because of a lack of enforcement.
“And I’m saying that until such time that we have proper enforcement of the laws that are on the books you’re going to continue to have chaos,” said Slowe, who was considered one of the country’s most proactive traffic chiefs.
But just what is responsible for this weak enforcement?
According to Slowe, it has to do with the professionalism, or lack thereof, of the Police Force.
“Because they have in many cases selective enforcement…because they know about the laws…but some people are scared because people are connected and they make a phone call and the ranks are dealt with unfairly, I believe, in many cases,” Slowe opined.
He referred to this scenario as shifting focus, since whenever a complaint is made against a rank who is doing his job, his officer usually takes the side of the complainant, although he is the one who committed an offence in the first place.
“Let’s assume that the stop was done correctly and the rank was courteous in approach, yet the focus is shifted from the fact that the person broke the law to the fact that he was stopped, and the junior ranks become frustrated. These are some of the things that are hindering enforcement,” Slowe explained.

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