Police launched an aggressive campaign recently to target and cite drivers in heavily tinted cars on New Providence, after noticing that an alarming number of criminals use these vehicles and target people driving them.
Police from the Traffic Division were stationed at various locations on the island citing drivers whose window tints are too dark, Superintendent Stephen Dean said.
Dean, along with Assistant Superintendent Craig Stubbs, officer in charge of the Traffic Division, held a press conference yesterday at the Traffic Division on the East West Highway.
Stubbs said the citing of a driver is up to the discretion of a police officer and depends on how dark a vehicle’s window tints are.
Dean said, “We have noticed a number of criminals, hardcore criminals who we have arrested for murder and armed robbery, are travelling in heavily tinted vehicles.
“It is creating a deep problem for the police because oftentimes we try to stop these vehicles and we do not know who is inside the vehicles. Our lives, in most cases, could be in grave danger.”
Dean said police also noticed that some people in tinted cars are targeted by some criminals in a case of mistaken identity.
“We know of instances where that has happened, where we have locked up somebody who might have shot at a vehicle and said, ‘I thought that was Peter in the car because that car looked like his own’,” he said.
“So we are saying for the protection of members of the public, take the tints off your car so it wouldn’t be that kind of case.”
He added that in most cases where bus drivers are robbed, their omnibus tended to be heavily tinted.
Stubbs said it is an $80 fine for driving a heavily tinted car and a $250 fine if a driver’s license plate is obscured.
This is the latest initiative by police in the wake of a dramatic rise in the number of murders and violent attacks.
Last Friday, all police officers on New Providence were placed on 12-hour shifts.
By Travis Cartwright-Carroll
Guardian Staff Reporter
