Jacob satisfied with police response to gridlock traffic in Cocorite

While he believes there was room for improvement in the co-ordination of resources to manage the flow of traffic in and around St James on Thursday, acting Police Commissioner McDonald Jacob says he was generally pleased with the response of the police.

On Friday, Jacob said he and other officers were doing their part to ease the flow of traffic in Woodbrook, St Clair and Cocorite.

For most of Thursday, a ruptuired Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) pipeline on the Western Main Road, Cocorite, caused drivers to spend hours in gridlock traffic.

Jacob said while the situation was unfortunate, he said due to unforseen circumstances police had to initiate a contingency plan to ease the flow of traffic.

"I was not 100 per cent satisfied, but I think the officers handled the situation well.

"I believe it was an emergency situation and there were expectations of WASA to finish at a certain time but because of some issues that arose that did not happen.

"We had a lot of officers on the ground from the Guard and Emergency Branch (GEB), the Emergency Response Patrol and the St Clair police station."

Jacob said about 20 police officers were part of the exercise to ease traffic.