JEDDAH, 15 January 2008 — People interviewed by Arab News recently described what they think are injustices when it comes to dealing with the traffic police.

Omar Al-Madani, a 28-year-old Saudi, said that he was driving his 1995 black Golf at 80 kph on Al-Malek Road in Jeddah.

At a police checkpoint, a police officer stopped him and accused him of speeding. When he confronted him he said the officer claimed that the radar caught him speeding at 175 kilometers per hour.

“I was very angry with him because he refused to listen to me,” said Al-Madani. “I refused to get out of the car until he shows me the evidence he has. He radioed a secret police officer down the road and I heard him saying that the car that was speeding was a dark blue Polo that is very similar to my car. When I told him that I was not that person and that they made a mistake with the car, he refused to let me go and took me to the police station. Who was going to hold the police officer responsible for his mistake?”

Ahmad Dahan says he was fined for running a red light simply because the officer was in a “bad mood”.

He said there are two types of officers. “There is the type that is careless and do not enforce traffic laws. And there is the type that applies the law aggressively without confirming his information or suspicions.

Musleh Al-Otaibi, Saudi teacher, said police officers often play the role of a country’s public relations officer when it comes to interacting with outsiders.

“Traffic police are reflecting the image of Saudi Arabia because we have foreign visitors driving in Jeddah,” he said. “Imagine if a tourist faced the injustice we face here? What type of an image he will have on Saudi Arabia? We should not compare about our Traffic Department with European countries or America. But if we look at countries like the UAE or Bahrain, we can see that they are much more advanced than us. At least the majority of officers there are good in people’s skills.”

Arab News obtained a cell phone clip of what appeared to be a police officer sitting in the back of his motorbike filling in traffic tickets. The officer will look out for violators. He notes down the plate number and the model of cars and writes traffic tickets. Then the yellow slip, which is supposed to be given to the driver, is taken out and thrown away.

A recent report in Al-Madinah newspaper showed that the Traffic Department detained more than 122 drivers in one day for violating traffic laws, like speeding and running red lights.

A source from the Traffic Department said that three of the drivers arrested on a Friday were driving over 200 kilometers per hour and four of the drivers arrested were caught driving 190 kilometers per hour. Ninety percent of the drivers that were arrested on that Friday were between 18 and 24 years old; eighty-seven percent of them were Saudis while the rest were non-Saudis.

In a previous interview with Arab News, Col. Muhammad Al-Qahtani, head of the Jeddah Traffic Department, said: “Both citizens and expatriates have the right to complain about violations including detainment. The Decision Committee has three officers and anyone who wants to lodge a complaint or who feels a judgment has been unfair can write to the committee.”

Al-Qahtani added that complainants would be assigned a specific time to present their case. “The Decision Committee meets twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays and has so far resolved many complaints to the satisfaction of drivers.”