Court administration backs holding warrant motorists in National Arena bathroom during ticket blitz

Several motorists taken into custody on court warrants raised concerns on Thursday after they were made to wait in a bathroom area at the National Arena in St Andrew while awaiting a judge on the second day of the Traffic Ticket Days programme.

The Court Administration Division (CAD) launched the initiative to reduce a heavy backlog of matters before the Kingston and St Andrew Traffic Court. With large crowds attending on the closing day, some of those detained on warrants told the Jamaica Observer they were unhappy with the holding arrangements. Others, however, said they preferred that outcome to being placed in a formal police lock-up.

One visibly distressed male driver said, “They were holding people in toilets around there. The stench around there was unbearable. The National Arena is big. They could have parted off a section and have us sit there. A lady even came in there to clean and do her thing. We come here to plead guilty. They didn’t have to put us in the toilet.”

Trecia Cameron-Anglin, chief executive officer of the CAD, said persons arrested on warrants would ordinarily be transferred to police custody. She explained that the bathroom area was used because officers required a secure, enclosed space for those in their charge.

“Why we had them there was because the police needed to have them in a contained space. They were in custody and were brought on a warrant because they did not pay their tickets. These persons have multiple tickets and the police were looking for them. Otherwise they would be in lock-up at Elletson Road,” said Cameron-Anglin.

She reported strong turnout across the two-day exercise. On Wednesday, 4,280 tickets were cleared, with fines paid totalling roughly $30 million. By midday Thursday, another 1,200 tickets had been processed.

“We had 6,000 registered offenders and we have close to 45,000 tickets. Some persons who had multiple tickets did not turn up and so warrants are out for those persons and they [the police] will be going out for them,” Cameron-Anglin added.