By Chantalé Fletcher
MORE than 12,000 people have been ticketed in the Covid-19 pandemic for not wearing masks.
This according to Inspector Ashraf Ali of Trinidad and Tobago Police Service Operations Command Centre at a media briefing on Monday.
Police have ticketed 12,163 people in total, he said.
Ali said the Operations Command Centre established a curfew hotline to deal with curfew issues during the State of Emergency.
He said, “Thirteen people were arrested last night for the breech of curfew.”
Ali said 576 have been arrested since the start of the SoE.
He said, “We are also issuing temporary curfew passes which is a one night for certain emergencies as the commissioner indicated. Last night between the hours of 9pm and 5 am in the curfew, we issued 31 additional temporary passes for persons.”
This brings the total number of temporary passes to 287.
He said that these passes included requesting permission to pick up and drop off people at the various hospitals.
Ali said, “We know the hospital systems run on different shifts, so we know persons will be leaving during the curfew hours to pick up their families at the hospitals.”
He said people also experiencing mechanical difficulties which leaves them out during curfew and the TTPS faced this on daily basis.
The inspector said Griffith spoke about ridiculous requests for passes which added to the tardiness of answering of the calls.
Ali said, “When these persons keep making the calls, it keeps the hotline busy and with legitimate individuals not able to get into the calls.”
He said, “Utilising the call centre for a legitimate reason, and don’t wait five minutes before curfew starts, where our lines go chaotic. As persons now realise that the curfew is upon them and whatever activity they are engaged in, will carry them into the curfew.
“We are asking you to communicate early, indicate the reasons why you need to be outside beyond the on the curfew period.”
