THE EDITOR, Sir:TODAY (MARCH 10)I had an experience which vividly explains to me, why it is so easy for 'bad' traffic cops to receive bribes and why it is that some seemingly law-abiding citizens are willing to pay bribes to these cops. As a law-abiding citizen and a Christian, I have no difficulty with paying the penalty for running afoul of the law. But does the process have to be sadistic?
Let me relate to you my encounter with a traffic cop this morning. I was on my way to a 9:00 o'clock appointment when I was pulled over by a traffic cop in the vicinity of Old Hope Road and Mountain View Avenue. He asked me to show him my driver's licence and other documents. I did so quite confidently, feeling sure everything was in order, when to my horror, he pointed out that my motor vehicle licence had expired. He warned me that I was being prosecuted for driving an unlicensed vehicle, that I would be fined $10,000 and that my car would be impounded. Distressing news, but I had to accept the consequences of my negligence.
I asked the cop where I should collect the car after I had paid the licence and he told me it would be at the Impound Depot at 27 Lyndhurst Road. I called my husband to get his assistance, since I now had no vehicle to get around, and together we went and licensed the car then proceeded to Lyndhurst Road to collect it (or so I thought.) I encountered one attendant and a security guard in a little cubicle at the gate of the compound. The attendant very slowly and carefully wrote up a fairly long document which he advised me I had to take to Harman Barracks on Deanery Road to have it signed off, confirming that the vehicle had now been licensed.
I showed the attendant the receipt and licensing disc which I had just received from the tax office as proof that the vehicle had been licensed, but he said the documents had to be seen and signed off by a senior police officer. (No explanation as to why Harman Barracks).I should also pay the tow truck fee of $5,176 at any NCB branch. When this was done, I should take the documents to the Transport Authority at 107 Maxfield Avenue where they would sign off confirming that I had paid the tow truck fee then to the other office of the Transport Authority at 119 Maxfield Avenue where I would pay the storage fee of $1,500.
However what the young man at the Lyndhurst Road Depot did not tell me was that after I had paid the storage fee at 119 Maxfield Avenue, I had to return to 107 Maxfield Avenue to get the release document which would allow me to collect the vehicle.
I drove the vehicle out of the Impound Depot at minutes to 2:00 approximately five frustrating hours of going back and forth. And don't forget I still have a $10,000 fine to pay by March 23!
Is it any wonder that some people take the "easy" route of paying "a money" to a cop who is willing to take it?
Am I over-simplifying the process if I were to recommend that a senior person or police officer at the Transport Authority confirm that ALL necessary payments have been made and sign the release document for the vehicle?
I am, etc.,
DOREEN ELLIS
29 Begonia Drive
Kingston 6
