Be vigilant, cop tells travelling public
NOTING THAT there continue to be instances where public passengers, females in particular, board taxis and are either robbed or harmed, Senior Superintendent of Police Calvin Allen has again urged the travelling public to exercise greater vigilance when selecting transportation.
Allen, who heads the police’s Traffic Division, told The Gleaner that while there is no discernible increase in these incidents so far this year, even one occurrence is too many.
“We continue to see instances where our female passengers, especially, are just hopping into public passenger vehicles (PPV), mostly taxis, without having that sort of comforting knowledge that the operator is upright,” asserted Allen.
“Your safety, in many respects, is in your own hands, so, while we are enforcing and providing security generally, we want for you to take far greater precaution towards your own personal safety,” he charged.
GUESSING GAME
To this end, the senior police officer argued that although the state-owned Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) isn’t foolproof, it is a safer option for travelling than randomly boarding PPVs.
“It is even worse if it is a white-plate vehicle, although there are some red-plate vehicles that are also not legitimate in terms of what will play out in the long run,” he added.
“When you board a JUTC bus, there’s no guessing as to whether or not it is a JUTC bus. But, when you hop on to one of those taxis, you’re not certain as to whether or not you’re in a legitimate taxi or you’re in one where the operator has different things in his mind in terms of criminal acts, so these are some of the things we must contemplate,” Allen reasoned.