“With im­me­di­ate ef­fect, we in­tend to in­ten­si­fy our polic­ing three hours be­fore the start of the cur­few.”

This from Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, Gary Grif­fith, who con­firms that be­gin­ning tonight, the TTPS will in­ten­si­fy pa­trols and road­blocks be­cause of the in­crease in ve­hic­u­lar traf­fic two hours pri­or to the start of the dai­ly 9 pm cur­few.

The move al­so is ex­pect­ed to put a dent in crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty, as crim­i­nals ap­pear to be us­ing this pe­ri­od to in­crease their ac­tiv­i­ties, the top cop said.

In an of­fi­cial state­ment, the CoP says the roads had be­come con­gest­ed and as the time draws clos­er for the start of the cur­few, mo­torists be­come anx­ious and, "we have seen a pat­tern of dan­ger­ous dri­ving on the roads as they try to reach their des­ti­na­tion."

At a me­dia con­fer­ence on June 14th, Com­mis­sion­er Grif­fith point­ed out the reck­less be­hav­iour of mo­torists.

Six weeks lat­er, he says noth­ing has changed for some as there con­tin­ues to be dan­ger­ous dri­ving, with some dri­vers be­ing caught dri­ving un­der the in­flu­ence.

"It’s a dan­ger­ous sit­u­a­tion out there as such be­hav­iour puts the lives of the er­rant dri­vers and oth­er mo­torists at risk. The high­way has be­come a race track just be­fore the start of the cur­few, so we will have to peg back that be­hav­iour with the in­crease in pa­trols and road­blocks," the Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er said.

“Since the start of the State of Emer­gency and the cur­few, po­lice of­fi­cers have en­coun­tered per­sons rac­ing to get home with all sorts of ex­cus­es,” he ob­served.  “Most preva­lent is the con­sump­tion of al­co­hol over the pre­scribed lim­it. A num­ber of per­sons have been charged and are be­fore the courts for this.”

Com­mis­sion­er Grif­fith added, "With im­me­di­ate ef­fect, we in­tend to in­ten­si­fy our polic­ing three hours be­fore the start of the cur­few. We will have many road­blocks, we'll be do­ing DUI test­ing and we'll be do­ing speed test­ing as well to put an end to the ir­re­spon­si­ble be­hav­iour of some try­ing to get home and some­times, even be­ing in­tox­i­cat­ed."