Authorities working towards prosecution of traffic violations caught on camera

A system to organise the information collected using traffic enforcement cameras is currently being developed, head of the Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch (PSTEB) of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), Assistant Commissioner of Police Gary McKenzie, has disclosed.

This configuration of data, McKenzie told The Gleaner, will make it more efficient for the police to prosecute motorists who breach traffic laws.

“There are a number of cameras that are actually capturing information; however, there are a number of things that need to be done,” he said.

“You need a proper back office in terms of the information captured; how it is collated and how it is sent to persons notifying them about an offence, and when they should pay for it and all of that sort of a thing. All of this needs to be properly streamlined, which is what is being done at the moment.”

Five years ago, then Transport Minister Robert Montague announced the installation of more than 700 traffic enforcement cameras, used to capture vehicle movement and record routine traffic violations, across the island.

The devices have licence plate reading technology and sanction owners or drivers of motor vehicles for traffic infractions in accordance with the Road Traffic Act and Regulations.

Further, the installation of traffic enforcement cameras was to help in the execution of the enforcement and legislation components of the National Road Safety Policy.

However, Dr Lucien Jones, vice chairman of the National Road Safety Council, said the cameras are being used for surveillance, but not for enforcing the law.

“So, they can pick up drivers going 100 miles an hour but, in terms of enforcing the law, they are not being used for enforcement as yet,” he said.

EFFECTIVE MEASURE

Sharing that Jamaica has recorded 155 road fatalities since the start of the year, Jones said the use of road traffic enforcement cameras in other jurisdictions has been very effective in curtailing traffic violations.

“In order for you to go one step further, you have to have a legal enforcement, either by passing the law or some instruction from the Ministry of National Security which allows you to use what you have on the cameras in a court of law,” he said.

However, pointing to Section 241 of the Road Traffic Act Regulations, which details how offences captured using electronic enforcement devices should be prosecuted, McKenzie emphasised that the apparatus to ensure that it works is being “tidied up”.

He noted too that, although the infrastructure is in place, “it will also need to be expanded as we go along”.

Mark Shields, former deputy commissioner of police and founder of Shields Crime and Security Consultants, told The Gleaner last week that the use of this technology can reduce the number of fatalities on the roads.

He shared that, six years ago, with permission from the relevant government agencies, his company installed traffic enforcement cameras on Waterloo Road in St Andrew and the number of traffic violations captured was staggering.

“In one direction, from Waterloo Road over the junction with Hope Road, we were capturing 3,000 red light breakers a month, and 1,500 people breaking speed limits through that junction as well,” he said. “I have the footage of hundreds of these incidents where people nearly got killed.

“The point that I am making is, you cannot have a police officer on every single junction and, in other jurisdictions where you introduce traffic enforcement cameras, they are able to police that particular junction ‘cause people will get tickets. At the moment, here, people break the law because they know the police are gonna be at certain points at certain times,” he continued.

Describing the impact of traffic enforcement cameras on road safety as “far reaching”, McKenzie said its coordination is being addressed with urgency. He added that it will go a long way in assisting the police to work more efficiently, and the roads safer.

“Where we have cameras at the intersection and persons are caught and they are convicted… persons’ licences may be suspended and that will of course aid issues on the road to ensure that it is safer because persons will realise that if they do not drive properly, then this is what will happen,” he said.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com