Jamaica to execute 80,000 traffic warrants as minister urges motorists to settle tickets

Justice Minister Delroy Chuck disclosed Thursday that authorities plan to execute more than 80,000 arrest warrants against motorists who still owe penalties on outstanding traffic tickets. Speaking at a traffic-ticket public day at the National Arena in Kingston and St. Andrew, he said more than 16,000 warrants have already been issued this year, with additional ones ready for enforcement as police continue road operations.

Chuck urged drivers who have not registered matters in their parish courts to do so promptly, warning they could be arrested if warrants remain outstanding. He also appealed for careful driving. The ongoing ticket amnesty covers offences dating back to February 1, 2018, ahead of the October 1 rollout of a demerit points system under which motorists who accumulate 20 or more points could lose their licences for up to two years.

Meanwhile, congregants at the Bible Way Church of God 7th Day in Mineral Heights, Clarendon, are grieving Constable Shaveain Davyy, a recently ordained pastor killed in a motor vehicle crash on the Bustamante Highway in Clarendon on Friday morning. Church member Donna Peterson said he was well loved and active with youth and brethren. "We all feel broken. His death has shaken up the church," she said. Reports indicate Davyy, attached to the Jamaica Constabulary Force Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch, was driving a Toyota Premio near Sansia around 5:00 a.m. when he lost control, overturned, and suffered multiple injuries. He was taken to hospital and pronounced dead.

The Island Traffic Authority reported that, as of July 10, 160 lives had been lost in 145 fatal crashes islandwide—a 33.3 per cent drop compared with the same period in 2025.

In St. James, Clive Bowen pleaded guilty Wednesday before Judge Aisha Grant-Price in the parish court to obstructing a constable and was fined $5,000, with five days in prison if unpaid. The charge arose from a June 15 incident on Barnett Lane, Montego Bay, where police were arresting another man and Bowen allegedly struck him while he was in custody. Bowen pleaded not guilty to a separate disorderly conduct count and is due back on September 9. The other man also appeared in court that day.

Separately, 64-year-old Jamaican pastor Junah Alves said he was among 11 people the United States sent to Eswatini on Wednesday under its third-country nationals arrangement, making him the second Jamaican recently transferred there under a programme for which Washington pays that country about US$5.1 million. Alves, who said he had lived in the United States for 44 years, described the transfer from a maximum-security prison in Eswatini as reminiscent of the slave trade: "They are treating us like slaves." He said he was arrested on January 11 in a churchyard in Florida by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents despite a 2016 convention-against-torture designation that he said barred his deportation. Alves, a father of eight with 11 grandchildren born in the US, recalled officers telling him, "You are going to the African country," and threatening, "if you don't go, we are going to put you in a plastic and carry you." He said Eswatini officials told him they were seeking paperwork so he could return home if Jamaica accepts him. Jamaican Orville Etienne was earlier sent to Eswatini under the same programme and was repatriated on September 22. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that return, stating, "We reaffirm that the well-being of Jamaicans overseas is a constant priority for the government of Jamaica." It has not commented on Alves's case.