As the fifth batch of traffic wardens graduated last week, Minister of Works and Infrastructure Dr Surujrattan Rambachan noted that the Traffic Warden Division was responsible for revenue of $7.5 million since the first wardens took up duty on the streets of T&T in March 2011.The 259 wardens have since issued a total of 8,105 tickets for traffic-related infringements.
That's a hard tabulation of their success in policing traffic violations and penalising illegal road use, but the presence of traffic wardens has also been welcomed positively since they were first deployed.Since they first began work, all the discussions about traffic wardens have been requests for more of them to be deployed in areas of T&T suffering from traffic problems.At least one letter-writer to the T&T Guardian called for them to be issued sound meters to monitor the volume of music in vehicles.
Stakeholders responded to the traffic wardens initiative as well. Five months after the wardens began patrolling, the Association of T&T Insurance Companies and the T&T Insurance Institute held a workshop for 77 wardens to help them to identify fraudulent insurance certificates.Cabinet responded to the success of the initiative in July 2013 by approving the employment of 500 more traffic wardens, and the event that found Dr Rambachan celebrating this new revenue stream graduated 85 more as part of that commitment.
But Dr Rambachan seemed nonplussed by the drop in tickets being issued between 2012 and 2013, a drop of more than 50 per cent in tickets issued–from 4,782 to 1,899."Is it that the public is obeying the traffic laws?" Dr Rambachan asked. "Or is it because we are lapsing in our duties?"
That suggests a need to have more oversight and analysis associated with the programme, which would lead to more information about the type of infringements that are being ticketed, where the highest concentration of tickets are being issued, and what the impact of that ticketing has been on traffic control and adherence to the rules of the road in those areas.
It simply isn't enough to graduate more recruits into the programme and to wish for hundreds more to meet the needs of T&T when so little appears to be known about the effect of the presence and actions of traffic wardens.The employment and deployment of more wardens might more effectively be done after reviewing the work that has been done by the division, and examining how existing wardens might be assisted in working more effectively and how they might be assigned more appropriately.
There is now an experience on record, both demonstrated by the profile of tickets given and the geographic breakdown of them, which should inform the ongoing training of wardens on duty and the training process for new wardens.The last thing the country needs is another employment programme, and it would be a tragedy if the apparently quite functional Traffic Warden Division ended up flooded with recruits only to find itself unable to perform effectively.
Before hiring more traffic wardens, the minister should ensure that existing intelligence on traffic infractions is guiding both the training and assignment of the officers currently in the division, as well as the hiring of future wardens.Such diligence will only enhance and improve the admirable record that traffic wardens have earned for themselves since the formation of their corps.