Abuses by traffic ranks must be stopped!

Nov 13, 2020 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Kaieteur News – I like what I see each morning. But, I also do not like some of the things which I see soon after I like what I see.
Let me explain this paradox. There has been a noticeable increase in the presence of traffic ranks on our main public roads each morning. They can be found on the West Coast public road and the West Bank public road, the East Bank public road, the East Coast public road and at select junctions in Georgetown.
These ranks are out early and therefore they help to coordinate the early morning traffic. They are doing a fantastic job when they are at their posts directing traffic, especially during rush-hour.
The problem is that too many of them, especially at certain junctions in the city, only work for half an hour and then stand idly by at the side of the road. After a half an hour of work, they get tired and abandon their station. And police vehicles are passing them and no one is coming out to instruct them to resume their work.
Two hours is a long time to be in the sun in the mornings. But to conk out after half an hour is too overbearing. The traffic ranks should be at their station and should be working until either they are relieved or their shift is over.
It may be that they may did not have had a filling breakfast and therefore are short of energy after waving their arms in directing traffic after half an hour. It may be that some of them are soft-babies for whom hard work is a problem. But they are not always in position when they should be, and this is giving the police force a bad name.
The second problem is that while ranks are out in the city in morning, they are not at most city junctions during peak afternoon traffic from 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm. Motorists end up wresting with each other to get out of the city and this really is a problem. So all the good work which is done in the mornings is undermined by the absence of ranks at most city junctions in the afternoon.
Near to Cove and John, ranks are out in the afternoons. But they have their own agenda and therefore they are not much help in directing the traffic at that narrow point.
The Police Force is short of staff, but you can bet if job applicants feel that they will be appointed as traffic cops, the Force would be overflowing with job applications.
Traffic ranks are still illegally stopping vehicles. According to information provided in the past, the police should not be making routine stops of motorists except at road blocks. In order to circumvent this rule, what is happening is that two ranks would set up their own stop-station and would be pulling motorists over and questioning them – especially females – as if it were an official road block.
The Traffic Chief should issue some form of clarifications on this matter. It is known that the police can stop you for a traffic violation. And armed with radar guns, traffic ranks are secreting themselves either around turns or behind parked vehicles, only to suddenly pop out and point the speed gun at your moving vehicle. This is called entrapment. It should not be allowed.
By their presence, the police should be deterring motorists from speeding, not seeking to entrap them, just in order to be able to issue a traffic ticket or collect a bribe. A few weeks ago, a recording appeared on social media in which a female driver was seen in an act which appeared to have put another female rank in a compromising position. I am sure that some senior police officers would have seen that video. But what have they done about it?
There is a now a no-nonsense Minister of Home Affairs. If anyone still has that recording of that incident, he or she should send it to the Minister of Home Affairs so that an investigation can be launched.
We cannot continue to do the same things over and over and hope to obtain different results. We cannot have sporadic actions being taken against the police and expect them to stop with their scheming ways.
It is time for the renegade conduct by the traffic ranks to be brought to an end. Traffic ranks have an obsession with stopping trucks. Perhaps that gentleman who likes to write about police matters in the letter pages may wish to speculate as to why the traffic police are so fixated in stopping trucks on our roadways.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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