Judge Sunia Questions Issuance of Traffic Tickets

dps-24

District Court Judge Fiti Sunia has a message for the commissioner and chief of police.

There’s no law authorizing cops to issue tickets and leave them on the wind shields of people’s vehicles.

Judge Sunia told police officer Amani Fatuesi to tell his bosses they have to serve tickets to persons, not their cars.

When the judge asked him if he knew why he had been summoned to court, the officer said no.

He was shown five tickets which he had issued without the names of drivers nor any signatures to prove the individuals being cited were made aware,

Asked if they leaving tickets on people’s wind shields was what they were taught, the officer replied yes.

Fatuesi explained this is what they were taught in the 1999 Police Academy.

Judge Sunia noted this was the first time the court has come across traffic tickets left on people’s windshields.

The judge commented it’s interesting to see an influx of ticket citations since the new Commissioner took over DPS.

Before Police Officer Fatuesi’s appearance before Judge Sunia, another officer, Time Loia was in court to  show cause for a ticket citation that was missing information.

Police Officer Loia told the court he issued about 10 tickets in the month of April .

He assured that it was not intentional to leave information out.

He was fined $50 which is the cost of the ticket and the law enforcement fee of $10.

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,