MAXI DRIVERS WANT SCANNERS AT CITY GATE

CCNTV6

Following an armed robbery onboard a red-band maxi early Tuesday morning, the Route II Maxi-Taxi Association is calling for scanners at City Gate and plain-clothes police officers on rides.   The Association says there have been two such incidents for the year already, and there is the increased risk of this escalating  over the Carnival period.   Rynessa Cutting reports.

Transcript

00:00Reports are that the passengers and the driver of a red band maxi were robbed by armed gunmen

00:06around six this morning along the priority bus route in the Beetham area.

00:11The Route 2 Maxi Taxi Association says this is at least the second incident for 2025 and

00:18it expects even more incidents over the carnival period.

00:22Apparently all the passengers on the vehicle were robbed and we leave some of the valuables

00:30and we find that situation very, very unfortunate.

00:33We experience it seasonal, so it will have the carnival season, it will have the Christmas

00:38season, it will have even the August holidays when school is about to open and when events

00:44come up, any big concert.

00:46So it's a long span of events from time to time, it does happen.

00:52Following the incident, some members of the public criticised maxi taxi drivers for supposedly

00:58having a lack of discernment.

01:01Now I saw some people on Facebook criticising drivers and saying the drivers like to pick

01:06up all kinds of characters, how do you respond to that?

01:10It kind of went difficult to really truly make a proper assessment of an individual

01:15because I have known people who have done robberies on maxis, well-dressed, with shirt

01:22and tie, well-dressed.

01:24I know an executive member who presently is serving as an executive member, people have

01:28robbed that guy who had a long-sleeved shirt with a tie and put a knife in.

01:34So it's difficult to make this quick assessment of people and again, sometimes you might be

01:39making the wrong assessment of an individual, it's very challenging.

01:43He further notes there is no particular area or time where these incidents tend to occur.

01:49The association is however calling on the police service to allocate some plainclothes

01:55officers to monitor the travelling public.

01:57We have asked the transit and we have asked the TTPS and we have made recommendations

02:03on different levels where it is concerned to have more stop and searches and also plain

02:09police, plainclothes police officers ride the maxis.

02:12And whilst they are riding the maxis, they could at any point in time initiate a stop and search.

02:18The association is also lobbying for infrastructure to aid in securing the transit hub.

02:24I don't want to use the strong word as irresponsible, let me say forward thinking, let me use that

02:29word, that you have the main transit hub, probably the main transit hub in the Caribbean,

02:33the largest in the Caribbean, that you don't have scanners heading into the carnival season

02:38where you have all this traffic coming out of city gates.

02:42It should have carnars where you would have mitigated a lot of weapons, knives and even

02:47guns to the extent when you come out of a maxi to enter the capital city and also vice

02:52versa.

02:53People coming out of the capital city, coming into a maxi, if you have scanners, they will

02:57not be able to come onto the maxi with any type of weapon.

03:01The association says over 2,000 commuters utilise the transport hub every day.

03:07Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.

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