Dear Editor,

The frustrating reality of daily gridlock across Jamaica’s transport network has reached an unbearable tipping point for some time now. As productivity hours vanish into endless tailbacks and fuel bills mount for thousands of citizens daily, public debate routinely focuses on civil engineering deficits, insufficient lane capacity, and the sheer volume of imported motor vehicles.

However, in our rush to diagnose the physical infrastructure, we consistently overlook a critical, high-leverage variable in the national mobility equation — the operational strategy, tactical posture, and administrative framework of our law enforcement agencies — specifically the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch (PSTEB).

For decades, the default way to manage severe bottlenecks, particularly during major infrastructure projects, has been to deploy police officers as human traffic signals. On any given morning or evening, uniformed personnel can be seen standing in the middle of oversaturated junctions along the Corporate Area grid or at major construction merges, manually overriding traffic lights or waving hand signals to steer vehicles through constricted lanes. While well-intentioned and physically demanding, this heavy reliance on manual intervention exposes a fundamental, systemic flaw in our approach to national transport management.

First, severe congestion during infrastructure repairs is no longer an isolated challenge confined to the urban core of Kingston, St Andrew, or Montego Bay. Driven by historic, multi-billion-dollar arterial initiatives — such as the Southern Coastal Highway Improvement Project (SCHIP), major corridor developments in St Thomas and Portland, and strategic bypass expansions across rural parishes — construction-induced gridlock has expanded across regional freight and commuter arteries. When vital single-artery links like the St Thomas to Harbour View corridor, Marcus Garvey Drive, or Portmore’s arterial thoroughfares undergo rehabilitation, the absence of secondary detour networks turns single-lane work zones into paralysing, multi-mile bottlenecks.

Placing a police officer at the neck of such a funnel does not resolve this underlying structural pressure. In fact, established research in traffic flow dynamics reveals an operational paradox: manual traffic direction by human observers frequently degrades overall network throughput. The paradox rests on the difference between localised queue clearing and network throughput optimisation. A human officer is excellent at resolving an acute, static blockage, such as a stalled truck or a crash scene. But for routine volume management, an officer’s localised visual focus, longer cycle times, disruption of corridor synchronisation, and the inherent friction of human-to-human communication make manual direction less efficient than automated, data-driven traffic systems. An officer holding a green light to clear a visible queue on an arterial road inevitably starves cross-town feeder routes or over-saturates downstream junctions, compounding congestion across neighbouring communities and creating secondary gridlock that cascades far beyond the officer’s field of vision.

Furthermore, traditional policing tactics, such as static speed traps, random document checks, or routine vehicle intercepts during peak commuting windows, generate intense physical and psychological friction. The sudden braking triggered when a driver spots a service vehicle or flashing lights creates backwards propagating shockwaves that rapidly convert steady arterial flow into miles of stop-andgo delays.

If law enforcement is to become a true enforcer of mobility rather than an unintentional catalyst for friction, police leadership, National Works Agency (NWA), Transport Authority, and Ministry of Transport and Mining must urgently transition to an Intelligence-Led Traffic Management (ILTM) framework. This modernisation demands a decisive shift in five operational areas: 1) End manual light overrides: Return routine intersection management to automated, adaptive signal systems that adjust cycle lengths based on network-wide algorithm data rather than localised visual cues.

2) Shift to frictionless automated enforcement: Regulatory compliance — particularly in high-risk construction zones — must rely on mobile speed cameras, red-light monitoring, and automated license plate recognition (ALPR) under the framework of the Road Traffic Act. Issuing digital citations directly to registered vehicle owners removes the need for physical roadside intercepts during peak hours, protecting officers and preserving corridor velocity.

3) Establish dedicated rapid incident management teams (RIMTs): Non-recurrent congestion from minor collisions or disabled vehicles in tight work zones accounts for a large share of daily delays. Deploy highly mobile motorcycle units equipped with digital crash-mapping technology with a strict mandate: secure the scene, capture evidence rapidly, clear the carriageway immediately, and complete detailed reporting off-highway.

4) Target high-friction driving infractions: JCF personnel should focus strictly on reckless behaviour that destroys corridor throughput — specifically aggressive drivers running soft shoulders at workzone merges, vehicles blocking the “box” at major intersections, and public passenger vehicle (PPV) operators making erratic, unregulated stops in active travel lanes.

5) Form integrated transport management centres (ITMCs): JCF command must sit side by side with NWA engineers, municipal authorities, emergency services, and civil engineering contractors in unified, real-time control hubs. This ensures work-zone traffic management plans (TMPs) are co-designed and monitored continuously using live camera feeds, allowing dynamic adjustments before gridlock cascades across parish lines.

Ultimately, national mobility can no longer be treated as an ad hoc, secondary duty for law enforcement. Every hour wasted in unmanaged gridlock directly drains Jamaica’s economic competitiveness, public health, and workplace efficiency. The path forward requires moving away from the visible theatre of manual traffic waving and static checkpoints towards a sophisticated, tech-enabled model of corridor governance.

By integrating automated enforcement, real-time data coordination, and zero-tolerance action against flow-destroying driver behaviour, the JCF and transport authorities can eliminate artificial roadway friction, safeguard infrastructure workers, and establish a modern, predictable transportation network that can drive the nation’s growth.

Dormah B Harrison Retired assistant commissioner of police dormahh@gmail.com