South Sudan Traffic Police officers seen counting money collected from motorists in Juba in 2019 | Credit | Courtesy

The National Police Service has begun a crackdown on indiscipline traffic police officers in Juba.

The police service said the operation started yesterday morning, will identify and arrest disorderly officers following complaints by the public.

Members of the public have often complaint of constant harassment and extortion by police officers.

The traffic officers, they said, used to coerce them to pay bribes.

Other grievances raised by the motorists include intimidation over logbooks and tinted windows.

Last year, the traffic police department detained 85 police officers and expelled others over abuses against motorists in Juba.

The force admitted that it had been infiltrated by those not to be belonging to the traffic police department.

Officials say many impersonate the service to wrongfully generate money.

According to the spokesperson of the police service, officers from the professional standard unit are combing the streets to arrest officers caught misbehaving.

“They have been deployed to monitor the behaviour of these officers on the roads. They will gather information, then the culprits will be arrested based on information gathered,” Major General Daniel Justin told Eye Radio on Tuesday afternoon.

He warned that any officers found guilty will be arraigned in court.

“[We] are checking for IDs on all the traffic officers on the roads and other things because some time find officers deployed in Gudele have changed location on their own to Gumbo, Shirikaat, and people have been complaining of extortion by these officers,” he explained.

Last month, the national parliament summoned the Minister of Interior, Paul Mayom, to appear before the Parliamentary Defence Committee over harassment of motorists by traffic police in Juba

This is after Noah taxi drivers petitioned the parliament for being constantly harassed for driving the left-hand door vehicles in the city.