ST JAMES, Jamaica — Assistant Commissioner of Police Ealan Powell, the commanding officer for the state of public emergency in St James, said since the declaration on January 18, the police have issued more than 11,000 tickets for traffic violations in that parish.

ACP Powell argued that the tickets issued were not aimed at collecting revenues on behalf the government, but instead to correct the chaotic and lawless behaviour of citizens.

“The police have written 11,000 traffic tickets in St James since the 18th of January. And, it was not aimed at collecting revenue, but it was aimed at correcting behaviour. Prior to that, we believe that the road traffic act was not meant for St James. We are reminding everybody here that it was meant for us, and we should obey it,” ACP Powell argued.

“When this (state of public emergency) just started, and we went on the streets, people never stopped at stop lights. You don’t stop in the intersections. You overtook everywhere. You don’t licence your vehicle. You run robots (illegal taxi). It was chaos,” he stressed.

ACP Powell, who was addressing a joint St James Municipal Corporation and Jamaica Constabulary Force town hall meeting in Montego Bay, St James on Thursday, also told the gathering that the safety and security of a city can be measured by orderly traffic management.

“Our aim is to bring order to the city. Every time you travel overseas, a measure of the safety of every city that you go in, is how orderly the traffic management is in that city. You can determine from the orderliness of the traffic that this is a place that is safe and secure,” stated ACP Powell, adding that “we have to bring back that level of safety and security to St James”.

Anthony Lewis