Garth Rattray, Contributor
THE MINISTER of Transport and Works, Robert Pickersgill, announced that traffic fines are soon to be increased once more and many people are saying that the traffic police are going to bathe in money.
People who drive past a speed trap or a spot check unfairly speculate that the cops are either 'looking a money' or 'hungry'. The decent police can blame that bad reputation on their colleagues who are doing flourishing business by extorting motorists.
I was once stopped by a sergeant of police (no less) who ordered me out of the vehicle and said, "Sometimes when we stop people like you it's not that anything is wrong, it's because we are thirsty."
VARIOUS WILES
Crooked cops employ various lyrics when illicitly soliciting funds. Some ask what you can do for yourself; others expound voluminously on the exorbitant fines and demerit points incurred for certain traffic violations while surreptitiously giving their victims an opportunity to extricate themselves from trouble by contributing to their private collection of $1,000 bills.
Some even feign leniency but hurriedly voice their willingness to accept a token of your appreciation to the tune of a few thousand dollars. Dastardly cops may falsely accuse you of failing to obey traffic lights or stop signs, while others leave a previously high reading on the radar instrument and falsely accuse you of speeding.
Another extremely lucrative source of income for rogue (especially motorbike) cops is the 'tax' that they charge mini-buses that operate outside their assigned routes to increase their income.
Affected mini-bus operators tell me that they have to factor in many thousands of dollars every week, fortnightly or monthly into their 'operating expenses' to pay off the cops.
Some cops go into business with collaborative wrecker (tow-truck) companies. Motorists have complained (on television) that some are quick to call for a wrecker to impound cars for minor violations by using their personal cellular telephones.
If you whine enough, some wrecker operators will return your vehicle at a pre-arranged location for a fee. This will save you a few thousand dollars and an entire day of government red tape. Some people report being told that the pound is full and that they were directed to the private premises of the wrecker company where their vehicle was retrieved for a fee.
Some cops are quite horrid. One uncouth policeman stopped a good friend of mine, berated, intimidated and falsely accused him of speeding. The ordeal was so traumatic that this mild-mannered, highly intelligent and well-educated man no longer feels pity for murdered cops and remarked that if he was treated so badly, the poor and helpless must surely be treated worse - hence their uncooperative and hostile attitude towards the police.
Crooked, unprofessional cops cost the country more than money; they cost their colleagues the respect, sympathy and confidence of the public. This has devastating results on their crime-fighting capabilities.
Nothing that I have outlined is secret, yet every single day, perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars are diverted away from our depleted coffers by police personnel sworn to uphold the law.
STING OPERATIONS, SUPERVISION
I've always believed that demerit points and high traffic fines used to discourage violations and increase government revenues could backfire because they invite some rogue cops to make for themselves huge fortunes.
Faced with the choice of giving a policeman a few thousand dollars and the possibility of court, thousands in fines and a loss of points, most of us would opt for the convenience of the former.
After all, we are already overburdened by exorbitant taxes and government inefficiencies; evading a ticket is the ultimate form of 'sticking it' to a system that we love to hate.
The vast majority of cops look upon their crooked colleagues with disdain because they know that it only takes a few rotten eggs to stink up the entire force. Cops that pressure female motorists for dates and others that ask motorists for food or money to disregard tickets belittle the entire police force. The actions of crooked, unprofessional cops must be stopped by numerous sting operations and rigid supervision.
Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice.
