Taxi operator accuses police of sneaky tactics

A Corporate Area taxi driver said some police officers have been employing what he calls 'sneaky' tactics to nab 'robot operators'.

The driver, who plies the Half-Way Tree to Whitehall route, said that when commuters converge at various points in Half-Way Tree, some police personnel hide within the crowd before rushing out to try to apprehend drivers operating contrary to their licences.

"As the car dem stop, dem rush it fi ketch di man dem weh a drive robot. Dat can cause chaos, cause some a di man dem, when dem pick up say a dat a happen, dem just speed up through the crowd. A di mercy a God mek nobody no dead yet," he said.

He said he is not worried because he complies with his road licence.

"If yu a run robot, once dem grab yu key, yu nah get it back, enuh. Dat a go pon wrecker. A two dem tek weh wah day yah," he said.

Illegal taxi men

He believes that this new tactic could be dangerous as some illegal taxi men would do everything they could to evade the police and that may lead to accidents.

However, head of the traffic division, Superintendent Courtney Coubrie, is refuting that cops operate covertly in Half-Way Tree.

"The hundreds of taxi operators who are in Half-Way Tree, you don't have to employ those methods because the disorder and 'rat race' to get ahead of others are all there to be seen," Coubrie said.

He said an enforcement team has been put in place to tackle unruly vehicle operators in the St Andrew capital since June.

"Since that team has been put in, over 300 vehicles have been seized and thousands of tickets issued," he told THE STAR.