CAD defends decision to hold motorists arrested on warrants in National Arena bathroom
SOME motorists, who were arrested based on warrants issued by the court, on Thursday complained that they were held in a bathroom at the National Arena in St Andrew while they waited to see a judge on day two of the Traffic Ticket Days initiative.
Traffic Ticket Days was initiated by the Court Administration Division (CAD) to clear a backlog of cases at the Kingston and St Andrew Traffic Court.
As thousands of people turned out to face the court on the final day, some of the people arrested on warrants told the Jamaica Observer that the were not pleased with being made to wait in the bathroom area.
But others said they were happy that they had not been taken to an actual police lock-up.
A visibly upset male motorist declared, “They were holding people in toilets around there. The stench around there was unbearable. The National Arena is big. They could have parted off a section and have us sit there. A lady even came in there to clean and do her thing. We come here to plead guilty. They didn’t have to put us in the toilet.”
Motorists with outstanding warrants being held in a bathroom area inside the National Arena in St Andrew.
But Trecia Cameron-Anglin, chief executive officer of the CAD, pointed out that the people with warrants would usually be taken to a police lock-up when arrested.
“Why we had them there was because the police needed to have them in a contained space. They were in custody and were brought on a warrant because they did not pay their tickets. These persons have multiple tickets and the police were looking for them. Otherwise they would be in lock-up at Elletson Road,” said Cameron-Anglin.
She disclosed that on Wednesday, 4,280 tickets were processed with motorists paying fines totalling approximately $30 million.
Up to midday on Thursday, 1,200 tickets had been processed.
“We had 6,000 registered offenders and we have close to 45,000 tickets. Some persons who had multiple tickets did not turn up and so warrants are out for those persons and they [the police] will be going out for them,” added Cameron-Anglin.
