TINT CRACKDOWN DAY 2

The tint law has been in effect since June of last year, and the Belize City Council's Traffic Department has been gradually enforcing it.

But the reality is that there are many drivers who have ignored the regulations, and they continue keep the unlawful window tints because the truth is: when last did you see a tint checkpoint?

But that has changed: there are a number of new operations where the traffic officers are doing random tint checks, and they've been given the enough new equipment to conduct these operations.

The City Councilor responsible for traffic told us that the traffic department will increase its vigilance for dark tint drivers:..

Alifa Elrington-Hyde, City Councillor
"The regulations for tint has been enforce since the 1st of June 2011 and we at the traffic are now putting out different operations - we are doing stop and check, we have purchase the machines necessary to check the percentage and so they are making different operations on different days where they are going to check the tints for the windows, the windshields and the back windows on your vehicle."

Daniel Ortiz
"I know that there are some citizens in the city who try to fool the traffic officers - they believe that there is still only one machine that is used to test, so they tend to lower the windows on their vehicles and drive with them so that when they do pass these traffic officers there is no alert that look - this window has the regular tint."

Alifa Elrington-Hyde, City Councillor
"What we are doing we are stopping every vehicle. Once there is a checkpoint and we are doing the check for the tinting each vehicle will be stopped. The traffic officers will ask that you roll up your windows and they will check to see what percentage your tinting is at."

"I can't tell you when these operations will happen because we are not trying to ambush anybody, we are not trying to just get over on anybody because the law has been in place since June of 2011. There are several persons who went on the different radio stations letting persons know that this law is coming into effect. At this point in time we are just trying to get people to follow the law. At this point in time I do realize that a lot of people are upset, we've quite a bit of difficulty over the last week that we've doing it because people have been very aggressive towards the traffic officers. This is something that is not new. Persons knew about it and we are now enforcing it."

As part of the enforcement effort, traffic officers will continue to conduct random operations and checkpoints, and this tint check will now be part of the routine, along with license and insurance inspections.

Channel 5