HEAD of the Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Gary McKenzie is pleased that the hunt for robot taxi operators is reaping good results since the operation started early last year.

The offbeat strategy, which was embarked on by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and Transport Authority (TA), includes the use of undercover agents, marked bills and recording devices to stop the operation of illegal taxis.

“We believe that it is a success as persons are being prosecuted and we have to continue the process and be consistent with the operation and at the same time provide the avenue for them to get their vehicles sorted out, which I can say that the Transport Authority is doing. As we continue the programme, we note that the persons made attempts to comply by applying for [public passenger vehicle] licences,” he told the Jamaica Observer on Wednesday.

According to McKenzie, the strategy has led to the seizure of more than 500 vehicles.

He said there are challenges in carrying out the undercover operation in some areas, as quite a number of motorists have been operating without road licences. Some of the problematic areas include Kingston and St Andrew, Montego Bay, Westmoreland and St Thomas.

In August last year, information gathered from the Observer indicated that TA officials were boarding robot taxis as regular civilians, capturing a picture or video of the driver receiving marked bills as fare, then disembarking the vehicles.

Additionally, the vehicles’ licence plates were also recorded, after which they would be easily tracked for confiscation.

Noting that the illegal cabbies are now cognisant of the strategy, McKenzie said, “One of the things that used to happen is that in some areas there would be large amount of vehicles that are not supposed to be operating, congregating and causing congestion and were blatantly disobeying the law. Persons are aware that if they take up a person, that person could be someone who is operating covertly. Of course, some still take the chances to take people who they know rather than take up complete strangers in some instances, but that is not something that one can perfect. So, as a result of that, we are able to impact them just the same.”

Despite the challenges, McKenzie made it clear that the authorities will continue to clamp down on the illegal operation to ensure the enforcement of the law.

“Some of them are still hell-bent on operating without road licences and that continues to be a cause of concern for us because we know that once there is any accident and so on and it is being heard that vehicles are being used contrary to the terms of what their insurance allow, then it is usually very difficult for the persons who are transported in those vehicles to get compensation,” he said.

“I am quite sure that insurance companies have had to be looking out for fraud on the part of persons who are involved and the police as well, have had to be very astute in terms of their investigations to ensure that we don’t have this kind of thing happening,” he added.