Ops Warta Sees A Mere 38,000 Warrants Settled On First Day

Ops Warta is underway, leaving police the rather daunting task of tackling the 1.59 million outstanding arrest warrants for traffic offenders. The offenders themselves should be even more concerned, as a total of 69 individuals have been arrested nationwide under this operation so far. 

Federal Traffic police chief SAC Datuk Mohd Fuad Abdul Latiff said “You can run but you can’t hide from us,” according to report by The Sun Daily. Despite there being 69 individual offenders arrested, a mere 38,000 warrants have been settled since the operation kicked off. 

In terms of location for those placed under arrest, those from Penang came in at 36, followed by Malacca at 24, Selangor and Sabah had three each, finally one each from Perak, Perlis, and Kuala Lumpur.

During the two week grace period given by the PDRM for guilty parties to come forward, only 260,000 summonses were handled, leaving the total number still very high which Mohd Fuad found “disappointing”.

Since Monday, a total of 44 individuals had voluntarily turned up to settle their warrants at nearby police stations with most being from Sarawak (39 people), Sabah (three), and Terengganu (two).

Mohd Fuad is perplexed as to why the remaining offenders are refusing to settle their summons, especially given that multiple warnings have been issued. Although they have not resorted to knocking on the doors of offenders’ place of residence and are concentrating on apprehending them through roadblocks. However, given the amount of warrants that have yet to be settled, that method remains in the periphery.

He said, “All those arrested cooperated with us before they were taken to court. Thus, no handcuff was used so far.”

Mohd Nadzri Hussain, KL Traffic police ACP, said that despite this, the public should take traffic offences seriously and come forward with any outstanding summonses voluntarily before they are caught at a roadblock or through other means.