Licensing and Police in joint efforts

IN pursuance of a police investigation, members of the Police Service will soon be able to get “real time information” on registered owners of vehicles who may or may not be involved in criminal activities.

This will be implemented by Tuesday, according to Transport Commissioner Nathaniel Douglas, who called an impromptu press conference yesterday to inform the media of the latest development. Douglas, speaking from his Wrightson Road office, told reporters that the Licensing Department along with the Police Service, under Acting Commissioner of Police Everald Snaggs, have agreed that the computerised database at the Licensing Department should be immediately linked with that of the Police Service. As a consequence, Douglas said, with the “press of a button,” all information will be made immediately available to the Police Service and will go a long way to find the drivers who do “dirty work.” Senior police officers told Sunday Newsday that for several years the police have not been getting “timely information” when pursuing vehicle owners who may or may not be involved in illegal activities. “Now we will be able to get ‘real time information’,” one senior officer said.

The Transport Commissioner also spoke at length on the use of flashing lights and pleaded with members of the public to report to the nearest station any driver whose vehicle is illegally fitted with flashing blue lights. “They (drivers) will be stripped of the lights and the driver can be prosecuted,” a stern-sounding Douglas told reporters. The Transport Commissioner said he had a personal encounter with an individual, who he said was in possession of a blue light and claimed he passed through Customs with it on his way from Miami. Douglas had a warning for the Customs people too: “We are going to look at the Customs area too.  We are now at a cross road and it is a question of make or break.” He said Police Commissioner Snaggs intends to speak with the Comptroller of Customs. Douglas further pointed out that only regular police vehicles are supposed to have flashing blue lights and that red lights are supposed to be used only by the Fire Service, the green is to be shared between the Prisons, Army and Ambulance Services, while he said the amber is strictly for trucks and private security firms.

Douglas said he had heard adverse reports about some security firms. He accused their drivers of overtaking and using their devices illegally. He also said that the name of a certain security firm was called in the recent kidnapping of teenagers Yves Ayoung Chee and Benedict Barrette. Douglas said he has been in consultation with a number of security firms — while some have come to see him. He also said that they have already implemented a system to deal with drivers who use heavily tinted windows. Saying that the law points out that people from the outside should be able to see individuals on the inside of a vehicle, Douglas told the media that road blocks, spot checks and patrols have been stepped up in an attempt to remove illegal tints from vehicles.