The police and public trust
Sep 19, 2016 , http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....ce-and-public-trust/
The police use speed guns to determine whether motorists are breaching the speed limits. Public confidence in these guns is low.
Many motorists charged by the police for speeding will most likely express doubt that they were actually driving above the speed limit.
Many motorists have been privately questioning how it is that you can be sure that when a traffic cop points a speed gun in your direction that the speed gun was cleared of any previous reading.
Many motorists are of the view that they are being unfairly targeted by the police but there is nothing that they can do about the matter.
There is no independent assessment.
The speed guns are going to be out once again as part of Operation Safeway which is being launched by the police in order to reduce road traffic deaths and improve safety on Guyana’s roads. Motorists will be pulled over for speeding and there will be many motorists who will once again question whether the police can be trusted to be honest with the use of these speed meters.
The application of justice relies heavily on the honesty of police men.
If a police officer goes before a court and says that he saw a driver fail to stop at a major road, an accused would have great difficulty in convincing the court otherwise because the accused would have to show the motive for the policemen lying.
If the public does not have confidence in the honesty of police ranks, then this throws the whole system of justice in disarray because the police are expected to be honest and not to concoct stories or speed gun readings.
A better system to curb speeding on Guyana’s roads needs to be implemented rather than having police ranks aiming speed guns at motorists. Guyana is still following a backward system of trying to reduce speeding by punishing those who breach speed limits.
Persons found guilty of speeding are either given tickets with a hefty fine or hauled before the courts for speeding. This approach breeds corruption amongst police traffic ranks.
A much better approach would be to encourage people to slow down.
Thus, instead of speed guns, the authorities should establish zones in which people are encouraged to reduce their speeds.
This is achieved by the use of electronic radars and by signs which tell motorists that they are approaching a no-speed zone and that in this zone their speed will be monitored.
The benefit of this approach is that it encourages people to actually slow down rather than waiting until they see a traffic cop ahead before they reduce their speed.
This will overtime increase road discipline.
The practice of issuing speeding tickets and hauling persons before the courts burden our court system and provide revenues for the State but have never been proven to reduce speeding on the roadways.
There are two other things which can be done to improve road safety. Both are expensive.
The first is to establish medians on major roadways so as to reduce accidents between vehicles going in opposite directions.
A great many fatal accidents are caused when one vehicle going in one direction overtakes another vehicle going in the same direction and ends up in the path of a vehicle in the opposite direction. One way of reducing these types of accidents is to establish medians.
The other major contributor to road fatalities is high pedestrian use of main highways and roadways.
This is heightened because of the practice of allowing villages to be established along the main highways and roadways.
This has to stop because people end up walking, riding and turning out from villages onto public roads.
Many times those doing so are unsupervised children and intoxicated cyclists and pedestrians. They end up being hit by vehicles.
Yet despite this, businesses continue to be established along the East Bank, West Coast and East Coast public roads.
There should be an end to this practice because it increases the risk of fatal accidents. The road networks should be designed in such a way as to allow limited places of exit and entrance between the main roads and the villages. No new businesses, including shops, should be allowed to be established along our main public roads.
If these things are done, it will make the work of the police easier.
But it will take much more than that for public confidence to be restored in the honesty of traffic cops using speed guns.