Attorney General (AG) and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall on Tuesday reminded members of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) that motorists who commit certain traffic offences should be issued tickets rather than being detained or having their documents or vehicles held.

Speaking on his weekly programme “Issues in the News”, Nandlall said the law was amended to create ticketable offences, with the intention of allowing Police officers to issue tickets for specified traffic violations. He explained that the ticketing system was designed to prevent motorists from being unnecessarily detained after being stopped for offences covered under the legislation.

“Police officers have to write a ticket, and no one should be detained in relation, therefore. That provides for the issuance of tickets for traffic offences. Rather than locking people up or detaining persons. Many years ago, we amended our laws and created a number of ticketed offences, and the whole purpose of creating those ticket offences was to permit the Police to issue tickets to persons if the Police believes that person has committed an offence and not to take away the person’s driver’s licence or the insurance and other documents and direct them to go to the Police station and have them wait for hours already in their vehicles or detain them, in any form or fashion,” Nandlall said.