TRAFFIC POLICE SUMMONS COMPLAINTS

By: DAP MEDIA

THE Kota Kinabalu Member of Parliament office received complaint from the drivers regarding the long queue and long wait at the Traffic Police offices here to pay for their summons which they said is torturing, unreasonable and not properly arranged.

One Mr. Joseph Chai who complained to the KK MP Hiew King Cheu through the phone while he was stuck in the long queue for more then 5 hours saying that it was ridiculous and he had never in his life waited so long in a queue just to make payment for a simple traffic summon. This is especially so when you have to wait under the hot sun and rain, and the many think it is torturing.

Due to the reason that it was the last day for paying up the summons in order to get a special discount and the queue got longer. Many people had brought along with them food and drinks, stools and even had stand-by person to wait in the long queue.

They said to make the situation worst, the police personnel were not having a systematic way of processing the summons and checking on the value of discount. This has to be referred to the senior officers for final approval given on the amount of discount allowed.

It is noted that there are complaint that many summons were not issued to the right order by the traffic police. For example a Miss Catherine whose car was in Labuan but she was being issued a summon in Kota Belud and she had the proof of the car was in fact in Labuan based on the Labuan Ferry tickets. The traffic police must ensure every summon they issued are to be correct and without error.

MP Hiew viewed the situation as serious and he urged the Traffic Police Department to review the situation and set a new closing date for the drivers to pay up their summons and get some discount too. The Traffic police should consider to extend the dead line for a further two weeks to allow more people can come forward to pay up. According to the records, there are still many who had not made payment to their summons.

The MP suggested that it is advisable to use a community hall to set up payment kiosks and use the numbering system to replace the long standing queue, and have the senior traffic officers to stand by to check and grant discount to drivers.

This must be done if the traffic police are sincere to clear the dead lock and the piling up of traffic offence summons. The faster they collect the dues, means more money for the department to utilize to improve their service and revenue for the government. We are talking about some millions of ringgits from the people.