Cops crack down on tinted windows
(CNS): Local police were pulling over drivers at the weekend as they engaged in a crackdown on tinted car windows and the visibility of number plates. In the past the police have mounted such offensives during periods of heightened crime or gang related activity. Although CNS understands from several sources that a number of gun shots were fired at a local late night spot in George Town at the weekend, RCIPS officials have said that no reports were made to police. During the roadside operation on Friday, 21 March targeting unsafe tint on side windows and windscreens, cops netted 17 offenders who they said had tint restricting light transmission under the prescribed limit required by law.
Police said they would be continuing with these operations and warned drivers about the law.
“The Traffic Regulations, 2012 stipulates that the top of the front windscreen may have a strip of tinted glass of any degree of light transmission not exceeding six inches in width, measured from the top of the windscreen,” a police spokesperson explained, adding, “The front side windows shall allow a minimum of thirty-five percent of light transmission whether the glass is tinted by the manufacturer or any other person".
"The rear side windows and rear windscreen shall allow a minimum of fifteen percent light transmission. Tint applied to vehicles’ windows and windscreens is deemed unsafe if light transmission in either direction is less than the prescribed light transmission under the regulations. Unsafe tint is an offence and punishable under the Traffic Law, 2011 and liable on summary conviction to a fine of two thousand five hundred dollars, or to imprisonment to six months, or to both,” the spokesperson added.
Advising motorists to remove license plate covers that have the effect of changing the appearance or legibility of any of the characters of the registration plates, the police said the plates should be readable in good daylight (with the aid of glasses or contact lenses, if worn) at a distance of sixty feet. Drivers who are non-compliant commit an offence and are liable on conviction to a fine of $300 or even six months jail time. The RCIPS said rear plate lights should be in good working order to illuminate at number plates so as to render it readable at thirty feet and motorists are also committing an offence if they drive without lights on their plates with the fine being as high as $2500 or six months imprisonment.
Category: Crime
How can they "crack down" on tinted windows when some police vehicles have the darkest possible tint? Please.. If they want people to follow the rules maybe they should try to set an example.
17 down, 10,000 more to go. Not even close to a good job. I could do better in one hour on my bike.
I think it's time the press find diffrerent words for ' Police crack-downs'. Since these crack- downs are very short lived, separated by aeons of time and happen only after the community has been complaining about the problem for years, perhaps they should be referred to as "rare and anomalous traffic policing events", or "bi-annual staff boredom reduction strategies."
Some of these covered number plates are impossible to read, even when seen close to. And while the Police are cracking down with their feather dusters, why not remove all those blue festive lights that some drivers like to decorate their cars with? After all, we're way past the twelve days of Christmas.
I can spot 17 "too dark" tints and license plate covers at any roundabout in Cayman in less than 1 minute. How long did the keystone cops of the Royal Cayman Islands Police Farce take to nab their 17?
Yes it really is news that the RCIP are planning to enforce a law.
What would be novel would be to have the RCIP enforce all traffic laws all the time.Now that would be news.
About time!, now they can start booking all those drivers who escaped tickets for no seat belts andusing cell phones, protected by impenetrable window tints.They should also go after all the local firms who apply these illegal tints.
Are they ticketing those cars in the George Town Police Station parking lot with tinted windows?
I don't mean the official police cars, just those owned by Officers or "visitors" to the station.
Can we also work on all those illegal, back-yard built trailers that are on the road, probably for companies who also don't have a business license? Some of those trailers are just SCARY!
Tinted brake lights too, please.
What about excessive noise from motorbikes, day and night. There are those who terrorize neighbourhoods morning, noon, and night. What are the police doing about that?
They can’t solve cases so they’re turning to tint & plates! A waste of govt $$$
I am glad to see this taking place. I hope they keep it up.
Good Job! Very proactive approach. Why wait until the criminals get "comfortable" before a new wave of crime begins again.
Ridiculous the amount of cars, be it nice new cars or beat up old cars with the dark Darth Vader tint and the "are you kidding me?" smoked plastic license plate covers.
WHAT ARE THEY HIDING?????
The things that police choose to focus their time and attention is ridicolous. "tinted windows" come on now, its not even the tint, its the car. If a guy drives through a police road block in a benz thats tinted dark i garuntee you he wont be pulled over, but a youth in a honda civic will and will most likely get a ticket.
RCIPS officers have taken an oath to police all the laws, everyday. They go out on these isolated campaigns – in this case, one part of traffic law for a few hours last Friday netting only 17 tickets – and then bust out the donuts and throw a press conference. Consistency will be it's own reward. Earn it.
Excellent. I want to see this happening regularly. And let's have more police cars mingling with traffic, please. I for one like to see police cars keeping an eye on things.
So do I most times. i did get a scare last year though. I was driving west , in the middle lane on Spots Straight and a police car going to a fender bender a little further down the road overtook me by driving around my car in the east bound lane. That really frightened me and it was just a fender-bender. Too much exhuberence I think.
When do you ever see police in traffice? LOL never gona happen. They don't DO traffic. But all the same I am happy they are doing "something".
I sat in traffic this morning looking at around 12 vehicles in 10 minutes with blacked out windows. Even I could catch those if I wanted.p
lol, ironic… one of the main reasons to get tint is for PRIVACY.
They need to crack down on tinted headlight lens and license plates covers as well. While at it, get those with loud mufflers too.
This should have been happening from longtime. Now pick up the dog owners who let their dogs off the chain at morning and evening time so they can go and crap and piss and kill cats and chickens in other people's yards. We have laws in this country but a reluctance to apply them if they involve "born Caymanians".
My neighbors house was burglarized and the house ransacked to the point, they locked up the house and left the island. The case is yet to be solved…..so what does the cops do? They stop people for tint are they bored? If so let's get on with solving some of these crimes and leave the petty stuff that's not chasing residents and tourists away from the island!
Are you seriously saying that if the Police can'tsolve one particular crime, then they shouldn't enforce any other laws?
The "zero tolerance" campaign that resulted in a massive decrease in crime in New York (including serious crimes like burglary and worse) started by targetting anti-social behaviour like littering and minor infringements like vehicle "construction and use" offences. The point was to slowly educate the population and to also re-set the boundaries of what was acceptable and what wasn't . (HINT: If it breaks a law, any law, it's not acceptable).
However, as others have said – the other half of the "zero tolerance" campaign was consistency of law enforcement.
If the burglar is not in the system they will not be caught unless they were caught on camera. A way to catch all these criminals is more CCTV plus mandatory fingerprinting of all residents, including students. This could be expanded to tourists as well and have all individuals who enter the island fingerprinted. Start with upon renewal of a drivers lic it requires a fingerprint and same with the passport, work permit, mandatory student Ids for all students, fingerprints for voters Ids etc.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Fingerprinting innocent people contravenes their human rights. Don't bother bringing up the US as an example, we live under UK and by extension, European, law here and neo-fascist US Law and practices are not relevant. There is precedent that is relevant to this jurisdiction – police in the UK tried surreptitiously to build a national fingerprint database, by keeping the prints & DNA of anyone who had ever been fingerprinted or swabbed, regardless of whether they were convicted of a crime or simply a witness – a recent Court judgment forced them to remove 1.6 million records from the fingerprint database and 1.7 million DNA records (i.e. the records of everyone who had been printed and swabbed "for purposes of elimination" as well as those arrested but not taken to trial or accused but not convicted.)
The thing is, Status Grant, the perpetrators of the crime are probably behind those tinted windows. So carry on RCIPS – stop as many people as you want – whatever make of car it is.
WOW they are finally "attempting" to enforce a law that was passed HOW MANY YEARS AGO LMAO LMAO…lets count how many other laws have been passed and not enforced…oops don't have that many fingers and toes to count!!!!
Good point. There is no justice in these Cayman Islands. NONE
And the REAL criminals go free . . . . .
What about speeding and tailing and recless driving ?
How do you know who the "REAL" criminals are? At least if they have legal tint and you can also see their license tag number. that at minimum is the first step towards identifying the speeders, tailers and reckless drivers.