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Police to hand out more tickets for traffic violations
– as AG flags costly harassment of road users
Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, SC.
Kaieteur News – The Guyana Police Force (GPF) will be stepping up its efforts to minimise the incidence of police harassment of road users. This comes days after Attorney General (AG) and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall, SC, spoke of how police misconduct and harassment on the roadways has been costing the State.
In an invited comment, Deputy Communications Director attached to the GPF, Stan Gouveia, explained that the steps are being taken for senior officers to ensure that the traffic ranks are equipped with their ticket books when they leave the stations for duty.
According to Gouveia, the ticketing system is already in place, it just needs to be in enforced.
“We will be putting a system in place for the senior officers to ensure that ranks have their ticket books with them when they leave the station so they can’t make the excuse not give out the tickets,” he said.
Added to this, Gouveia is urging members of public to utilise the avenues available to them to report police harassment.
“The Guyana Police Force has made it easy for citizens to lodge complaints with the senior officers. We took the initiative earlier this year to make public the phone numbers of the commanders. So any member of the public can call the commander directly and have their concerns addressed. What we would like to see is more utilising this avenue for reportage of harassment,” Gouveia said. The Deputy Communications Director noted that the numbers are available on the GPF Facebook page and at any district police station.
During an airing of his weekly Facebook commentary, AG Nandlall, SC, spoke of police abuse on the roadways and the impact it has on State resources.
He explained that the incidence of police stopping people and detaining them without cause is a violation of the constitutional rights of the citizens.
Nandlall noted that “people tend to sue and when it is the State that has to pay for the misbehaviour and the violation of the law, and the abuse of power by the police officers.”
He stressed, while police officers must be allowed to discharge their statutory functions and duties, this should not be done in a manner that infringes, violates, or tramples upon the rights and freedom of citizens.
He stated that “The (members of the) public are constantly complaining about the police behaviour, particularly on the roadways … Unless it’s a very serious offence, such as Causing Death by Dangerous Driving, the police have no right to detain vehicles for the alleged commission of traffic offences. We have a ticketing system in place that allows errant drivers or road users to be ticketed, and that process is not supposed to be a long one. Reasonable time should be expended, and the persons should be allowed to go their way with their vehicles.”
As it relates to arrests, AG Nandlall outlined that a person should only be arrested or detained upon reasonable suspicion that a serious offence was committed.
He explained that “When the police detain those vehicles and legal proceedings are filed, it is the Attorney General who has to go to a judge and explain why this vehicle is kept so many days. And I can’t, in law, offer an explanation that makes sense. And every day I have to keep negotiating with various lawyers and various litigants in very difficult circumstances.”
Nandlall emphasised that “It is the Attorney General who is required to answer in the Court of Law for Police misconduct and misbehaviour. It is the State, using taxpayers’ dollars that have to pay compensation – sometimes running in to millions – for police misbehaviour and police violations of the law, police violation of people’s constitutional rights.”
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