KUALA LUMPUR: Although police have extended the operating hours of counters handling traffic summons for public convenience, judging by the turnout at the city traffic police headquarters, many have yet to utilise the facilities.
A check at the city traffic police headquarters in Jalan Tun H. S. Lee yesterday revealed that the turnout was low.
Despite expecting the station to be packed with people as there was only two days left before police begin their crackdown against errant motorists, only two or three people were at the station at a time to either check their outstanding summonses or to pay up.
Most of them, however, did not have arrest warrants.
A man who only wanted to be known as Chong, in his 50s, said upon hearing about Op Warta, he visited the station to check if he had any outstanding summonses.
“I only have one summon, but I had settled it anyway to avoid any inconvenience.”
Another man, Faizal Jamaludin, 51, said he only found out that he had an outstanding arrest warrant issued to him when he came to check the status of his summonses.
“Although I know that I have many summonses, it was shocking to find out that I have an arrest warrant. However, I paid it anyway.”
On Friday, police instructed all its traffic summons counters here to be opened today and tomorrow from 9am to 10pm for public convenience.
Federal traffic police chief Senior Assistant Commissioner Datuk Mohd Fuad Abdul Latiff said police would not postpone its Op Warta, which is set to begin Monday.
During the operation, police will set up roadblocks, track down traffic offenders and pay door-to-door visits to arrest errant motorists.
Those who fail to settle their summons will be charged in court. Police have also warned that handcuffs would be used on offenders who did not cooperate.
As of Thursday, 27,140 or 1.7 per cent of those who had outstanding summonses and warrants of arrest had paid up compared with a total of 1,590,000 arrest warrants, issued against traffic offenders.
The offenders had initially been given until May 15 to pay their fines.