Driving us up the wall

Daniel Thwaites

The plan announced by Senior Superintendent Radcliffe Lewis, requiring motorists to get clearance from the Traffic Division headquarters before renewing a driver's licence or car registration, seems to me a very bad idea.

SSP Lewis wants to catch those with outstanding warrants and tickets, and that in itself is fine. So in theory, there is a kind of logic to it. However, this just goes to show that theories can sound wonderful, but be practically worthless.

What the police need to do is fashion a method of doing their own work rather than transferring it on to the public.

This current idea is rather like the impressively stupid question at the airline counter about whether you've packed an explosive in your luggage. I can't imagine that Ahmed or Mohammed is going to answer "yes" just to help out the authorities.

Similarly, I imagine drivers with outstanding warrants will likely just avoid going to Traffic HQ, or will find someone there to corrupt. Meanwhile, it presents law-abiding citizens with just another hoop to jump through to get basic business done.

There are nearly three million people in Jamaica. How is it beyond our competence to devise a method whereby relevant information is readily available to the authorities, such as who has outstanding tickets and warrants?

The famous American social security number fulfils this function, whereby almost all information about you is immediately traceable. I would say that the US system works a little too well, but other countries have more or less similar systems. Without minimising privacy concerns, a modern state needs to have an efficient method of identifying citizens, tracking miscreants, and collecting data.

We have the driver's licence, the TRN, the voter identification card, and a number of other single-purpose numbers and identifiers that ought to be standardised and made more useful. I'm aware there's a project to do something like this, but it is taking far too long and I don't think it's signal importance is appreciated by the Government.

The announced plan just pushes back the need to do some police work, and creates another circuit in the system for things to go wrong. I envision another tangle of bureaucratic red tape, long lines and incomprehensible rules, and at worse, another maze where you have to 'sen a ting' to 'get chroo quick'.

Consider the recent ticket amnesty. The newspapers carried stories of some taxi men owing millions in unpaid fines. How can this be? Don't the taxis ply the same routes over and over and become known to the cops? Don't they check if the last ticket has been paid? I wonder if the police did an internal investigation as to how many of the offending cabs may have been owned by policemen.

Anyway, although I'm not ready to reverse my impression of SSP Radcliffe Lewis as a serious policeman determined to do his job well, I don't want him to be so enthusiastic to outsource his job to me.

US SENATE COMMITTEE ON JAMAICA

Although I should have known better, I allowed myself a lapse into excitement and hope when The Gleaner announced that the Major Organised Crime Anti-Corruption Task Force was undertaking major operations in Montego Bay. The subsequent report that the grand operation had netted a few spliffs and disrupted some electricity theft brought everyone abruptly back to reality.

Why do the police announce that they are undertaking an operation, as seems to have happened here? Just go ahead. Have the press conference when there's something good to report.

Anyway, Senate hearings in the United States seem to be the proximate cause of the frenzy to get rid of the lottery scammers, who have been linked to hundreds of deaths over the last few years. Somehow, the hundreds of deaths didn't quite trigger the action that some bad foreign press and a potential decline in tourist arrivals did.

Plus, the whole Dudus saga is still fresh on my mind. He had been lurking in Tivoli Gardens, torture chambers and crocodiles at the ready, for a very long time without anyone - except, perhaps, Reneto Adams - seeing fit to challenge him and reclaim 'The Republic' as part of Jamaica.

Too often recently, it seems that the only time there's decisive action is when the US demands it.

Hence, I believe that Jamaicans need to consider petitioning the US Senate to hold hearings about the country more generally. If the US Senate would empanel a special committee to scrutinise Jamaican affairs, we might have a decent and thoroughly cleaned-up country in a year or two.

SINISTER HUNTING OF BUNTING

There is no question that Minister Peter Bunting is a talented businessman. I've read the opinion expressed that his was a misassignment at National Security, but I don't think that's necessarily so. Hopefully, he will use that business acumen to bring more organisation and efficiency to the police force. It can certainly use it.

One thing I intend to check on during my next emergency is the 119 phone service. I'm not sure how it's going nowadays, but up until a few years ago, it was terrible. In one circumstance, a family called for help in an emergency, and after waiting forever to be answered were told that help would come as long as they came to the police station first and delivered some gas for the vehicle. It had run out, you see.

My current plan is to just leave a jerrycan of gasolene with my name on it at the nearest station, so that if I'm lucky enough to get through, the police can come. You may want to try it as well. My friends tell me that if you leave a few bottles of rum, that also works, because apparently the police have special vehicles that run on Appleton and Rum-Bar.

Anyway, back to Minister Bunting. I'd like very much if he refrains from being robbed, either in his person or of his possessions. I know it's a somewhat primitive way of seeing things, but I reckon that if the minister isn't safe, there's precious little chance that I will be.

Daniel Thwaites is a partner of Thwaites Law Firm in Jamaica, and Thwaites, Lundgren & D'Arcy in New York. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.