KUALA LUMPUR, May 20 — Traffic police went nationwide yesterday, cracking down hard on errant motorists who ignored calls to settle their outstanding summonses by arresting them at their places of work.
The first day of Ops Warta saw 69 traffic offenders arrested in Selangor, Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, Perak and Sabah within three hours.
Federal traffic police chief Datuk Mohd Fuad Abd Latif said those who did not cooperate with police were handcuffed and taken to the nearest police station.
“If the arrest was made in the morning, we can proceed to charge the offenders in court on the same day,” he said.
“If it’s too late for the offender to be charged, he can be released under police bail. However, he or she will have to appear in court.”
Mohd Fuad said there would be no deadline for the operation, which would go on until police resolved the 1.59 million arrest warrants issued since 1990.
“I call for those who have arrest warrants issued to pay up their summonses or we will come knocking on their door,” he said.
He said police would soon commence door-to-door operations to serve warrants of arrest on stubborn traffic offenders.
The Kuala Lumpur traffic police team and the Bukit Aman traffic police team visited various premises including the workplaces of traffic offenders during the operation.
“Thirty-nine people from Sarawak voluntarily showed up at police stations to pay their summonses and we hope more would do the same,” Mohd Fuad said.
“The first two weeks of our announcement only saw three per cent of offenders coming forward to pay up.”
He said Penang had the highest number of arrests — 36 — yesterday.
Mohd Fuad said roadblocks would be set up after this.
“They can run but they cannot hide because we can check all details using our Mobile Card Acceptance Device which provides us with previous records, including criminal records, during the roadblocks,” he said.
On April 30, Mohd Fuad gave traffic offenders two weeks to pay their summonses, some of which date back to 1990.
He said those with a number of summonses could meet the district traffic chief to find ways to resolve the outstanding amounts.
He also warned the public against bribing police officers as those who did so would be arrested for not only failing to settle their traffic summonses, but also for graft.
In 2008, traffic police conducted door-to-door operations to serve warrants of arrest on traffic offenders under Ops Warta.
The stern action at the time received negative feedback from the people who said it was not necessary to handcuff offenders.
However, police defended themselves by saying only those who did not cooperate were handcuffed.
