By Leroy Smith
Taking into consideration the concerns of members of the public, Traffic Chief Dion Moore today set out to remove the tint from junior members of the Guyana Police Force.
The Traffic Chief executed the spontaneous operation at the Brickdam Police Station which saw several ranks stripping their vehicles of heavy tint. Moore said the move came on the heels of never ending cry by civilians, who always make reference to the heavy tint on vehicles owned and operated by the police, whenever there is a tint campaign.
“Well we recognise that a lot of junior ranks in the Guyana Police Force have their vehicles that they drive or vehicles that belong to friends and family and in order for them to be disciplined, they ought not to be driving those vehicles without the necessary permit to have the tint so apart of the enforcement is to ensure that those tints are removed from those police owned vehicles in their own personal capacities,” Superintendent Moore told the News Room.
Meanwhile, one of the police ranks, who had to remove his tint, is not too happy with the campaign as he noted that there is a backlash. The rank told News Room that in many cases, there are senior officers who would call junior ranks to turn a blind eye to their friends who are held with heavily tinted vehicles at the various road blocks.
Meanwhile, Moore went on to say that, “Members of the public ever so often would say to us, look you need to look at police vehicles also. So that is one of the other factors that we are using to conduct this campaign.”
According to the Traffic Chief, the ranks from whose vehicle the tints were removed would receive a warning and if at any point they are found to still be sporting tint on their vehicles; then a process would be initiated for charges to be laid against them.
The Traffic Chief added, “There is a system in place that we have the disciplinary act which we can use against them as well so it’s not for them to have a response; it’s for them to comply with the instruction given. At the moment we are giving them a warning but if ever we are to come across the similar actions again then we will take the other way forward that is to have permission and charged them as the case may be, the same amount of tint accepted for civilians will be same amount for police, however there are permission granted to a lot of senior officers and ranks of the Guyana Police Force.”
That amount is 35%; the operation is to be moved to several other locations across the country unannounced.
