THE Royal St. Lucia Police Force is touting major successes with its stop-and-search operations currently ongoing in several parts of the country — and at the same time, is calling on motorists to comply with the Road Traffic Act or face having their vehicles impounded, or being ticketed.
Police of late have been conducting several day and night operations like checking vehicles and targeting known hot spots like Leslie Land, Rock hall, Grass Street and Wilton’s Yard conducting searches and monitoring these areas.
Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations, George Nicholas on Friday said the operations, some of which appear to be routine police checks on motorists, are all intelligence-driven in large part and which to date have been very successful.
He said that over 2,000 vehicles have been checked to see if they were in compliance with the Motor Vehicle and Road Traffic Act.
“We have issued over 300 tickets, impounded nine motor vehicles that include motor cycles and have confiscated close to 40 dangerous weapons that include knives, cutlasses and scissors,” Nicholas said.
“We have also seized narcotics, cash we believe is linked to money laundering, made arrests and conducted searches in targeted locations like Rock Hall, Wilton’s Yard, Grass Street and Leslie Land,” he added.
“There are a lot of issues factored-in in the locations we operate. We are asking motorists to be understanding, to be more cooperating in helping reduce crime,” Nicholas noted, calling on motorists to also “have patience with police officers who are in execution of their duties.”
“Sometimes a little inconvenience is a small price to pay for our personal safety and reducing crime in the country,” Nicholas asserted.
He said that the most prevalent of offenses found by his men in those operations thus far has to do with motor vehicles without insurances, failure to display insurance stickers and failure to produce documents.
