Unsafe for police to ‘chase’ bikers! Reckless riders being prosecuted
Commissioner of the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force (RVIPF) Michael Matthews has given an assurance that riders who break the law are being prosecuted and their bikes are being seized.
Commissioner Matthews made the comment on a recent airing of the Honestly Speaking with host Claude Skelton Cline radio programme in response to the public notion that police are doing nothing about lawless bikers.
“I still maintain that we don’t want to get into the territory of chasing bikes and creating an accident and putting our people’s lives at risk. And one of the things we’ve been telling our officers to do now is to take a photograph of the rider and the bike while committing the offence, and we will catch up through via summons,” Matthews stated.
“The police may well be doing something. It doesn’t mean that we are overtly doing something at that moment in time, but I can assure you that prosecutions are taking place and seizures are taking place.”
New space needed for storage of bikes
To reemphasise his point, Commissioner Matthews further alluded to the crowding of seized bikes now in the possession of police and revealed that a request has been made to the Minister of Transportation Kye Rymer to have a designated area specifically for bike storage.
“One of the conversations I have had with Minister Rymer in the past few months is about us urgently needing an area of land as a compound to put seized vehicles in because the Road Town station and other locations are becoming overcrowded now with the bikes that we are seizing,” he added.
His statements come weeks after local businesswoman and former First Lady of the British Virgin Islands, Lorna Smith, called on authorities to intervene in what she refers to as an ‘unbearable’ nuisance brought on by unemployed drag racers during the night-time hours.
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I recently read of a US state where riding motorbikes is prohibited from 8pm until 4am daily.
No doubt the residents in that area are able to have pleasant, uninterrupted sleep at night. Unlike us with those footloose and fancy free young riders.
Food for thought.
I doubt a state in the US would have that kind of law. Perhaps a town might pass something like that. Regardless something here does need to be done about the noise these things are allowed to make and the poor behaviour of the riders.
What is the name of the state in the US that have that law? Further more; I have lived in the US for the past 45 years and the only I’ve ever seen any motor-bike is at antique shows. So you need to get your facts straight……..
Well Sir, whatever you and your merry men are doing (if you are actually doing what you say) seems to serve as no deterrence whatsoever! I’m sure when those that are doing these illegal activities are been squeezed you will hear it on the street quickly. To date, not one of those individuals has any worries about any of your Officers doing a damn thing!
To date you have been all talk, you run a good P.R campaign, and the sum total of all that is zero substance, zero change, nada!! Sorry, I would love to see something you say actually happen!
They ride without helmets so u know who they are. Don’t Have to chase a dog to catch a dog
We all see the police in a position to take pics or videos of the bikers but they don’t do it !
So if that’s the only enforcement you have we are all f####d !
I need proof this prosecution, because to me these bikers are getting worse! We need to see them becoming examples of what will happen by continuously doing the same nonsense!
You could just stand around Cane Garden Bay between Quito’s and Columbus and write tickets all day and all night. Unregistered 2 wheelers, speeding, no helmet, reckless operation, no license, no insurance, and on and on.
They pass right by police station multiple times. Pretty easy to stop them!
Just go up by the purple house falling in the sea, or the bar that was deemed so important it needed a generator from the govt. May as well close the police station. Waste of current keeping the lights on there.
so why did you purchase 2 x 750cc motorbikes?
he soft
PUT UP ROAD BLOCKS OR BRING BACK THE POLICE AND SOLDIERS THAT WERE HERE AFTER THE HURRICANES
Please can the Commissioner provide some comforting statistics:
* how many summonses (against lawless bikers) have been issued in the year to 31 December 2019
* by comparison how many summonses were issued in the year to 31 December 2018
Can the Commissioner explain why the Force does not set up mobile speed traps?
Can the Commissioner explain why he is not using noise abatement legislation to prosecute those that remove the muffler?
This Commissioner has publicly stated that he believes law-breakers are “stupid” but from my perspective these motorcycle menaces are driving circles round PC Plod.
Yes, too much talk. Show us proof of what you are saying. Let us see those statistic. The proof is in the pudding.
IF HE DONT WANT TO DO IT GET SOMEONE ELSE WHO WILL…..SIMPLE AS THAT
Is thick and does not care, talks a lot with nothing to back it up!
Blame me…….
If only our police force could stop playing f***cking dominoes and enforce the territories laws.
Don’t be fooled by him. If they were doing what they say they are we wouldn’t be seeing the same offenders riding the same bikes doing the same thing.
What is the LAW as it relates to HELMETS? I for sure would like to know.
We should be asking why did government pass the law to increase the motor size of the scooter bikes?
Now we have created more work for the Commissioner of Police and his team to chase down nuisance/reckless scooter riders in the Territory
Where are the bikes donated to the police to be able to chase these irresponsible bike riders. Definitely, is not possible to chase in a car.
But “mano a mano”, yes. Those police motorbikes are nowhere to be seen.
And you accept bigger bike now???? Foul