Managing Spontaneous Motorcades on Nomination Day

Chester Williams

Although both major political parties agreed not to hold the traditional mass gathering of supporters and motorcades through the streets, there were instances when that commitment was not upheld, much to the disappointment of ComPol Chester Williams.  And as it relates to the city, traffic department vehicles and police were seen escorting the motorcades. Williams says he prepared for the eventuality.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“We lobbied and asked the political parties not to have motorcades because we know that by law we cannot stop them. We, however, had said that once there is a motorcade, then we expect that all the requirements of the quarantine regulation as well as the traffic laws are adhered to. And so we noticed that despite the fact that both political parties had said before that there would be no motorcade that some candidates of both parties still went ahead and had spontaneous motorcades. And so we were prepared for that. As I said to my commanders this morning that even though there was this agreement that there would be none, that we must still prepare ourselves in the event that there would be spontaneous motorcades because we anticipated that. So what we did was that in eastern division, Mister Rosado had arranged with the City Council to assist in the escorting of the motorcades for both political parties. And the reason for the escort was to ensure that there was compliance with the regulation, two there was compliance with what had been agreed in the bond that they signed and three that they adhered to the route that they had given to the police for the motorcade. And so it is in that spirit that the police and city traffic were engaged in escorting the different motorcades to the respective locations and back to where they retired.”