Hardcore traffic offenders face arrest

Nailed: Two police officers leaving a warrant of arrest at the house of a traffic offender in Malacca during Ops Warta last year. They will be launching the operation again next month.

KUALA LUMPUR: Police will be going after hundreds of thousands of hardcore traffic offenders when they kick off Ops Warta next month.

Bukit Aman traffic chief Senior Asst Comm Datuk Mohd Fuad Abdul Latiff said they had not forgotten about those traffic offenders who had outstanding warrants of arrest.

“To date, 2.49 million of the 4.09 million warrants of arrests have already been settled.

“Now we are looking at the remaining 39% (1.59 million),” he said at Bukit Aman yesterday.

In 2008, traffic police had embarked on a door-to-door operation to serve warrants of arrest to traffic offenders under Ops Warta.

In 2013, police targeted over 251,000 errant motorists, heavy vehicle drivers and motorcyclists in the first stage of Ops Cantas Trafik.

Notices were sent out to the offenders, warning them that warrants of arrest have been issued against them.

Bukit Aman had also worked together with the EPF (Employees Provident Fund) and National Registration Department to track down the addresses of these traffic offenders.

SAC Mohd Fuad said multiple warnings have already been given over the past two years, but these remaining offenders were stubborn and had refused to settle their summonses.

He also warned that although police had toned down their operations, this did not mean that those with outstanding warrants would get away scot-free.

“If you are stopped at a road block and we find out that you have an outstanding warrant, we will take action.

“There are many ways of checking for outstanding summonses so do not expect us to let you off easily,” he said.

He explained that vehicle users could check if they had outstanding summonses through www.myeg.com.my and www.rilek.com.my.

“You can also check at any traffic police counter, post office and Maybank ATM and at selected shopping malls and Road Transport Department branches,” he said.

SAC Mohd Fuad added that the operations would kick off some time next month.

“Don’t be surprised if you are stopped at a roadblock next month and are placed under arrest,” he said.

SAC Mohd Fuad said in the first three months of this year, police had issued 880,914 summonses.

“From these summonses, 9,119 were for misuse of the emergency lane while 69,629 summonses were for cutting the queue.

“From these numbers, I can gather that our motorists have not changed their attitude,” he said, adding that they should try to be more law abiding and courteous.

It was reported last year that police would not entertain excuses from the usual plea of ignorance to claims of having no money to pay their summonses.