Traffic Chief urges public to cooperate with police, avoid confrontations

Traffic Chief, Senior Superintendent Ramesh Ashram is calling on the public to work along with police officers during routine traffic stops.  

This call comes on the heels of the circulation of a number of videos on social media capturing confrontations between police and civilians.

“I am appealing to members of the public whether driver or pedestrian and the public as a whole, cooperate with the police, listen to the police,” the traffic chief urged during an interview with DPI.

He said, “if you tell yourself at a stop or roadblock you were treated unfair, you can take that rank’s number and name, report to the superior and action would be taken.”

Senior Superintendent Ashram said the confrontations are stemming from comments he made in May, where he urged police ranks not to stop civilians only to check for documents. Those comments were made on the virtual programme ‘Police and You.’

However, he said the comments were taken out of context. The traffic chief clarified that he called on police officers not to check for documents during peak hours to allow for the free flow of traffic. Those hours are between 7:00am and 9:00am and between 2:00pm and 6:00pm.

With that, he said “if the police are carrying out an exercise, you have to comply with the police, do not use the statement how you want to use it for your own benefit because the police are covered under the law, under Cap 16:01.”

Nevertheless, he said there is need for a relationship between the police and civilians.

Deputy Commissioner of Operations, Clifton Hicken during a recent interview with DPI echoed similar sentiments. Hickens had said bridging the gap between the police and citizens is an area of focus of the Guyana Police Force.