THE Clarendon police on Sunday arrested and charged 24 people for breaching the Disaster Risk Management Act (DRMA). They were stopped during an operation in the vicinity of the Mineral Heights roundabout after the 2:00 pm curfew began.
“I’m very disappointed that we have so many persons on the road with no reasonable cause to be out after curfew. We find that some persons who are on the exempted list are abusing that privilege by transporting other persons who are not on that listing [and are] all over the place, so we are doing the enforcement now and ensure we send a message to say that it’s not business as usual,” Superintendent of Police Christopher Phillips said.
He said the police have noticed that there has been widespread disregard for the curfew.
“Based on our observation, we have seen that there was a greater level of compliance on public holidays, but for some reason, since of late, persons no longer observe the time period for curfew, especially on Sundays, as up to four hours after the curfew has begun persons are still on the road without any reasonable excuse why they are on the road. So we are sending a message to persons, and we are asking them to please obey the curfew time that is set by the Government” he said.
Superintendent Phillips said several parents had to be called to collect their underage children who were also picked up during the curfew hours.