JEDDAH, 8 October 2003 — The sight of traffic police at checkpoints forcing drivers to remove illegal tint from their windows has become common here.

Sports cars, SUVs, and family sedans have all been forced to comply with a law that is now being vigorously enforced; a direct result of the ongoing war on terror, which has prompted the Kingdom to focus on areas of vulnerability.

But not everybody understands.

“If there is one place where you need to have tinted windows it is here. For the sake of privacy, and the heat,” says Ahmad, 25, a banker, who feels he has suffered at these checkpoints.

“My car came with tinted windows. In two months I must have been stopped over 12 times.

“I racked up close to SR1,000 worth of traffic tickets. In the end the police forced me to scratch the tint on my windows off with my key, which ended up damaging the whole window.”

Traffic laws in the Kingdom ban the use of tinted widows on the driver and front passenger sides of the car. The back seat passenger windows are allowed to be tinted, but some drivers say the officers at checkpoints are taking liberties by asking some drivers to remove all tint from their cars.

Khalid Hassan, 38, a driver working in the Kingdom was asked to remove the tinted windows on the backseat passenger side of the car.

“We argued for close to an hour. He let me go, but I got a ticket for my troubles. I don’t think the law is clear on this one,” he said.

According to one police officer, “the law allows the owner of the car the option of tinting his rear windows, but not completely. The on-duty police officer has to be able to tell who is in the backseats because of standard officer safety. If the tint in the back is too dark, the driver can be asked to remove it.”

In May this year three members of Al-Qaeda were arrested at a checkpoint in Madinah. According to reports the windows of the jeep were blacked out, and the suspects were dressed in abaya.

That story is not a comfort to everyone.

“If you wanted to avoid all the checkpoints in Jeddah, you could. We know where they are, and all the possible alternate routes,” Hassan, a local resident, told Arab News. “I think the main thing coming out of these checkpoint is that the traffic police are making their quotas,” he added.